Stratemeyer \ , stra-t3- 1 ml-9r\ / Edward (b. Oct. 4, 1862, Elizabeth, N.J., U.S.—d. May 10, 1930, Newark, N.J.) U.S. writer of popular juve¬ nile fiction. He began writing stories in imitation of Horatio Alger and other adventure writers, and he later edited several publications and began writing series of books. In 1906 he founded the Stratemeyer Literary Syn¬ dicate, which would publish the Rover Boys, Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Bobbsey Twins, and Nancy Drew series, written by himself and a stable of hack writers under a variety of names. After his death his company was largely directed by his daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (1893?— 1982), who also wrote many books in several series.
Stratford, Viscount See Stratford Canning
Stratford Festival Canadian summer theatrical festival. The foremost classical repertory theatre in North America, it was founded by Tom Patter¬ son in Stratford, Ontario, in 1953. It includes three permanent theatres: the 220° open-stage Festival Theatre, the Avon Theatre, and the Tom Patterson Theatre, which is reserved for experimental works. The festi¬ val features productions of William Shakespeare’s plays (Stratford was cho¬ sen as its locale because the town’s name matched that of Shakespeare’s birthplace) but also performs other classic dramatic works.
Stratford-upon-Avon Town (pop., 1995 est.: 28,000), Warwickshire, England. It is located on the River Avon. The town’s first royal charter was granted in 1553. For centuries a country market town, it became a tourist centre because of its association with William Shakespeare, who was born and died there; his grave is in the parish church of Holy Trinity. The
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1830 I Strathclyde ► strawberry
Shakespeare Centre in Stratford includes a library and art gallery (opened 1881) and a theatre (opened 1932). Every year from March until Octo¬ ber, Shakespeare’s plays are performed in the Royal Shakespeare The¬ atre.
Strathclyde Medieval Celtic kingdom, Scotland. Located south of the River Clyde, it was established in the 6th century. Its capital was Dumb¬ arton. The Piets and Vikings ravaged the kingdom in the 8th-9th centu¬ ries. It suffered several defeats by the English, who took it over in the early 10th century. The Anglo-Saxon King Edmund I leased it in 945 to the Scots king Malcolm I. It became a province of Scotland in the 11th century after the death of its king, who had helped Malcolm II defeat the English at Carham.
stratification Layering that occurs in most sedimentary rocks and in igneous rocks that are formed at the Earth’s surface, such as from lava flows and volcanic deposits. The layers (strata) may range from thin sheets that cover many square miles to thick lenslike bodies that are only a few feet wide.
stratigraphy \str3-'ti-gr9-fe\ Scientific discipline concerned with describing rock successions and interpreting them in terms of a general time scale. It provides a basis for historical geology, and its principles and methods are applied in such fields as petroleum geology and archaeology. Stratigraphic studies deal primarily with sedimentary rocks but may also encompass layered igneous rocks (e.g., those resulting from successive lava flows) or metamorphic rocks formed either from such extrusive igne¬ ous material or from sedimentary rocks.
Stratofortress See B-52
stratosphere Layer of the atmosphere that is located above the tropo¬ sphere. The stratosphere extends from a lower boundary of about 11 mi (17 km) altitude to an upper boundary (the stratopause) at about 30 mi (50 km). The ozone layer is a part of the stratosphere.
Straus Vstraus\ family German-U.S. merchandising family that dis¬ tinguished itself in public service and philanthropy. The family originated in Bavaria, and the patriarch, Lazarus Straus, immigrated to the U.S. in 1852, followed by his wife and three sons: Isidor (1845-1912), Nathan (1848-1931), and Oscar Solomon (1850-1926). They established a mer¬ chandising firm that allowed them to gain an interest in Macy and Co., which led to complete ownership in 1896. Isidor established the depart¬ ment store chain of Abraham & Straus, served briefly in the U.S. Con¬ gress, and engaged in philanthropic works; he and his wife perished aboard the Titanic after giving Mrs. Straus’s place in a lifeboat to their maid. Nathan was noted for his philanthropy; he distributed food and coal in New York and supplied pasteurized milk to children in 36 cities dur¬ ing the 1892 depression, built the first tuberculosis preventorium for chil¬ dren (1909), and provided food for New York’s poor during the harsh winter of 1914-15. He devoted the last years of his life to public-health work in Palestine. Oscar was appointed Secretary of Commerce and Labor by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, becoming the first Jewish Cabinet member (1906-09); he also served as emissary to Ottoman Turkey and as an adviser to Pres. Woodrow Wilson, and he was a strong advocate for the protection of Jewish minorities in Europe.
Strauss \'shtraus\, Franz Josef (b. Sept. 6, 1915, Munich, Ger.—d. Oct. 3, 1988, Regensburg, W.Ger.) German politician. Strauss studied at the University of Munich and was an active member of a Roman Catho¬ lic youth organization that clashed with the Nazis. Called up for military service in 1939, he was captured by U.S. forces near the end of World War II. After his release in 1945, he served as councillor to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and in 1946 was appointed deputy county direc¬ tor in the Schongau district by the U.S. occupation authorities. He helped found the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) in 1945 and was elected to the Bundestag in 1949. He served as minister of defense (1956-62) and minister of finance (1966-69). Head of the CSU from 1961, he was the party’s unsuccessful candidate for chancellor in 1980. As premier of Bavaria (1978-88), he pursued economic policies that made it one of Germany’s most prosperous states.
Strauss Vshtraus,\ English Ystraus\, Johann (Baptist) (b. Oct. 25, 1825, Vienna, Austria—d. June 3, 1899, Vienna) Austrian composer. His father, Johann Strauss the Elder, was a self-taught musician who estab¬ lished a musical dynasty in Vienna. A violinist, he played in a dance orchestra from 1819; when it split in two (1824), he took over the sec¬ ond group, for which he began to write waltzes, galops, polkas, and qua¬
drilles, eventually publishing more than 250 works. As bandmaster of a local regiment, he also wrote marches, including the Rcidetzsky March. Johann the Younger left his family in 1842 and soon surpassed his father’s popularity and productivity, becoming known as the “Waltz King.’’ By inducing his brothers, Josef and Eduard, to take over his conducting duties, he gained more time to compose the symphonic waltzes for which he is best known, including The Blue Danube (1867) and Tales from the Vienna Woods (1868). His operettas include the popular Die Fledermaus (1874) and The Gypsy Baron (1885). Eduard’s son Johann, a conductor and composer in Berlin, was the last of the dynasty.
Strauss, Richard (Georg) (b. June 11, 1864, Munich, Ger.—d. Sept. 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen)
German composer and conductor.
Son of a horn player, he began com¬ posing at age six. Before he was 20, he had already had major premieres of two symphonies and a violin con¬ certo. In 1885 the conductor of the Meiningen Orchestra, Hans von Bulow, made Strauss his successor.
Strongly influenced by the work of Richard Wagner, he began to write programmatic orchestral tone poems, including Don Juan (1889),
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks (1894-95), and Also sprach Zar- athustra (1896). After 1900 he focused on operas; his third such work, Salome (1903-05), was a suc- ces de scandale. Elektra (1906-08) marked the beginning of a produc¬ tive collaboration with the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, with whom Strauss wrote his greatest operas, including Der Rosenkavalier (1909- 10). He remained in Austria through World War II and held a music post in the German government, but he was later cleared of wrongdoing in connection with the Nazi regime. After many years writing lesser works, he produced several remarkable late pieces, including Metamorphosen (1945) and the Four Last Songs (1948).