Brooks, Van Wyck (b. Feb. 16, 1886, Plainfield, N.J., U.S.—d. May 2, 1963, Bridgewater, Conn.) U.S. critic, biographer, and literary histo¬ rian. Brooks attended Harvard University. His Finders and Makers series, tracing American literary history in rich biographical detail from 1800 to 1915, includes The Flowering of New England, 1815-1865 (1936, Pulitzer Prize); New England: Indian Summer, 1865-1915 (1940); The World of Washington Irving (1944); The Times of Melville and Whitman (1947); and The Confident Years: 1885-1915 (1952).
broom In botany, any of several leguminous shrubs or small trees of the genus Cytisus, native to temperate regions of Europe and western Asia.
They are cultivated widely, chiefly for their attractive flowers. The com¬ pound leaves have three leaflets. The solitary or clustered yellow, purple, or white flowers resemble pea flow¬ ers. The fruit is a flat pod. A com¬ mon, almost leafless species is C. scoparius, a shrub with bright yellow flowers often grown for erosion con¬ trol in warm climates. Butcher’s broom ( Ruscus aculeatus ) is a shrub of the lily family with small whitish flowers and red berries.
Brouwer Vbrau-orX, Adriaen (b.
1605/06, Oudenaarde, Flanders—d.
January 1638, Antwerp) Flemish painter. After studying with Frans Hals in Haarlem c. 1623, he returned to Flanders and by 1631 had settled in Antwerp. His pictures, mostly small and painted on panels, typically depict peasants drinking and brawling in taverns. The coarseness of his subjects was in direct contrast to his delicate technique; his virtuoso brush- work and sparkling tonal values were unsurpassed. Brouwer popularized genre painting in Flanders and Holland. Adriaen van Ostade and David Teniers were among his many followers.
Browder, Earl (Russell) (b. May 20, 1891, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—d. June 27, 1973, Princeton, N.J.) U.S. Communist Party leader (1930-44). He was imprisoned in 1919-20 for his opposition to U.S. participation in
Rupert Brooke, posthumous portrait drawing by J.H. Thomas; in the National Portrait Gallery, London
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Brown, C. ► Brown, W. I 281
World War I. In 1921 he joined the U.S. Communist Party; he served as the party’s general secretary from 1930 to 1944 and was its presidential candidate in 1936 and 1940. In 1944 he was removed from his position for declaring that capitalism and socialism could coexist, and in 1946 he was expelled from the party.
Brown, Capability orig. Lancelot Brown (b. 1715, Kirkharle, Northumberland, Eng.—d. Feb. 6, 1783, London) British master of natu¬ ralistic garden design. He worked for years at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, one of the most talked-of gardens of the day, under William Kent (1685— 1748). By 1753 he was the leading “improver of grounds” in England. At Blenheim Palace he created masterly lakes and almost totally erased the earlier formal scheme. His landscapes consisted of expanses of grass, irregularly shaped bodies of water, and trees placed singly and in clumps. His style is often thought of as the antithesis of that of Andre Le Notre, designer of the formal Versailles gardens. Brown’s nickname arose from his habit of saying that a place had “capabilities.”
Brown, Charles Brockden (b. Jan. 17, 1771, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—d. Feb. 22, 1810, Philadelphia) U.S. writer. Brown left his law studies to devote himself to writing. His gothic novels in American set¬ tings were the first in a tradition later adapted by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wieland (1798), his best-known work, shows the ease with which mental balance is lost when common sense is confronted with the uncanny. His writings reflect a thoughtful liberalism while exploiting horror and terror. He has been called the “father of the Ameri¬ can novel.”
Brown, Clifford (b. Oct. 30, 1930, Wilmington, Del., U.S.—d. June 26, 1956, Pennsylvania) U.S. jazz trumpeter. He became the most influ¬ ential trumpeter of his generation, inspired by Fats Navarro to combine technical brilliance with lyrical grace in his playing. He was a principal figure in the hard-bop idiom (see bebop). After touring with Lionel Hamp¬ ton’s big band in 1953, he worked with Art Blakey; in 1954 he and drum¬ mer Max Roach formed a quintet that became one of the outstanding groups in modem jazz. He died in a car crash at age 25.
Brown, Ford Madox (b. April 16, 1821, Calais, Fr.—d. Oct. 6, 1893, London, Eng.) British painter. He studied in Bruges, Antwerp, Paris, and Rome. In Italy (1845) he met Peter von Cornelius, a member of the Naz- arenes, who influenced his palette and style. His use of brilliant colour, meticulous handling, and taste for literary subjects had a strong effect on the Pre-Raphaelites, most notably Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His most famous paintings are The Last of England (1852-55), a poignant tribute to emi¬ gration, and Work (1852-63), a Victorian social commentary. In 1861 he became a founding member of William Morris’s company, for which he designed stained glass and furniture.
Brown, George (b. Nov. 29,1818, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. May. 9,1880, Toronto, Ont., Can.) Canadian journalist and politician. He immigrated to New York in 1837 and in 1843 moved to Toronto, where he founded The Globe (1844), a reformist political newspaper. As a member of the Cana¬ dian assembly (1857-65), he advocated proportional representation, the confederation of British North America, acquisition of the Northwest Ter¬ ritories, and separation of church and state. He later became a leader of the Clear Grits movement. In 1873 he was appointed to the Canadian Senate, though he continued to manage his influential and popular news¬ paper (later The Globe and Mail).
Brown, James (b. May 3, 1933, Barnwell, S.C., U.S.) U.S. singer and songwriter. Growing up in Georgia during the Depression, Brown first sang and danced on street comers for money. He later formed a trio, appearing at small clubs throughout the South. He gradually evolved a highly personal style, combining blues and gospel music elements with his own emotionally charged and highly rhythmic delivery, accented by a strong sense of showmanship. His first hit, “Please, Please, Please” (1956), was followed by other million-selling singles, including “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”; his style, marked by strong dance-oriented rhythms and heavy syncopation, became known as funk. His checkered personal life was highlighted in 1988 when he received a three-year jail sentence on a variety of charges.
Brown, Jim orig. James Nathaniel Brown (b. Feb. 17, 1936, St. Simons, Ga., U.S.) U.S. football player, often considered the greatest run¬ ning back of all time. He was an All-American in football and lacrosse at Syracuse University. In his nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns (1957-65), he set NFL overall rushing and combined yardage records that
stood until 1984. Averaging a record 5.22 yards per carry in his career. Brown led the NFL in rushing in eight of the nine years he played. After retiring from football, he became a movie actor.
Brown, John (b. 1735, Buncle, Berwickshire, Scot.—d. Oct. 17, 1788, London, Eng.) British physician. He propounded the “excitability” theory published in Elementa medicinae (1780), which classified diseases as over- or understimulating and held that internal and external “exciting powers,” or stimuli, operate on living tissues. Brown viewed diseases as states of decreased excitability, requiring stimulants, or increased excit¬ ability, requiring sedatives. Hermann von Helmholtz discredited the theory.
Brown, John (b. May 9, 1800, Torrington, Conn., U.S.—d. Dec. 2, 1859, Charles Town, Va.) U.S. abolitionist. He grew up in Ohio, where his mother died insane when he was eight. He moved around the country working in various trades and raised a large family of 20 children. Though he was white, he settled in 1849 with his family in a black community founded at North Elba, N.Y. An ardent advocate of overt action to end slavery, he traveled to Kansas in 1855 with five of his sons to retaliate against proslavery actions in Lawrence. He and his group murdered five proslavery settlers (see Bleeding Kansas). In 1858 he proposed to estab¬ lish a mountain stronghold in Maryland for escaping slaves, to be financed by abolitionists. He hoped that taking the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., would inspire slaves to join his “army of emancipation.” In 1859 his small force overpowered the arsenal’s guard; after two days it was in turn overpowered by federal forces led by Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried for treason, convicted, and hanged. His raid made him a martyr to northern abolitionists and increased the sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War.