Eluard Na-lm-'arV, Paul orig. Eugene Grindel (b. Dec. 14, 1895, Saint-Denis, Paris, France—d. Nov. 18, 1952, Charenton-le-Pont) French poet. In 1919 he met Andre Breton, Philippe Soupault, and Louis Aragon, with whom he founded the movement they would call Surrealism. His subsequent poetry— Capitate de la douleur (1926), Les Dessous d’une vie ou la pyramide humaine (1926), La Rose publique (1934), and Les Yeux fertiles (1936)—is considered the best to have come out of the movement. After the Spanish Civil War he abandoned Surrealist experimentation. During World War II he wrote poems dealing with suffering and broth¬ erhood that were circulated secretly and strengthened the morale of the Resistance. His postwar poetry, including Le Phenix (1951), was more lyrical.
eluviation Removal of dissolved or suspended material from a layer or layers of the soil by the movement of water when rainfall exceeds evapo¬ ration. Such loss of material in solution is often referred to as leaching. The process of eluviation influences soil composition.
Elway, John (Albert) (b. June 28, 1960, Port Angeles, Wash., U.S.) U.S. football player. He had an outstanding athletic career at Stanford University, then played professional baseball briefly before joining the Denver Broncos in 1983. He is one of only three quarterbacks to have passed for more than 45,000 yd; he holds the record for victories by a starting quarterback (148); and he ranks among the top three for pass attempts (7,250), pass completions (4,123), passing yardage (51,475), and passing touchdowns (300). Famous for last-minute heroics, he led a total of 47 fourth-quarter game-winning or game-tying touchdown drives. He announced his retirement in 1999 after leading the Broncos to a second consecutive Super Bowl victory.
Ely Ve-le\, Richard T(heodore) (b. April 13, 1854, Ripley, N.Y., U.S.—d. Oct. 4, 1943, Old Lyme, Conn.) U.S. economist. He studied at Columbia University and the University of Heidelberg. His career interests focused on labour unrest, agricultural economics, and the problems of rural poverty. He taught at Johns Hopkins University (1881-92) but resigned in the face of harsh opposition to his ideas on academic freedom and the labour movement. He was a founder of the American Economic Associa¬ tion (1885). At the University of Wisconsin (1892-1925), he helped create Wisconsin’s progressive program of social reform legislation.
Elysium \i-'li-zhe-9m, i-'li-ze-3m\ or Elysian Fields Ancient Greek paradise reserved for heroes to whom the gods had granted immortality. Homer described it as a land of perfect happiness at the end of the earth, on the banks of the Oceanus River. From the time of Pindar (c. 500 bc) on, Elysium was imagined as a dwelling place for those who had lived a righteous life.
Elytis \e-'le-,tes\, Odysseus or Odysseas Elytes, orig. Odys¬ seus Alepoudhelis (b. Nov. 2, 1911, Iraklion, Crete—d. March 18, 1996, Athens, Greece) Greek poet. The scion of a prosperous Cretan fam¬ ily, he began publishing verse influenced by French Surrealism in the 1930s. His first two collections reveal his love of the Greek landscape and the Aegean Sea. During World War II he joined the antifascist resis¬ tance and became something of a bard among young Greeks. One of his best-known poems is TheAxion Esti (1959); later works include The Sov¬ ereign Sun (1971) and The Little Mariner (1986). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979.
Elzevir \'el-za-,vir\ family or Elsevier family Family of Dutch booksellers, publishers, and printers, 15 members of which were in busi¬ ness between 1587 and 1681. Members of the family operated at The Hague, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. They were best known for their books or editions of the Greek New Testament and the classics. Though their work enjoyed an almost legendary reputation for excellence of typogra¬ phy and design, it is now regarded as merely typical of the high quality that prevailed in their day in Holland.
Emain Mac ha Ve-voffi-'va-koX Political center of Ulster during pre- Christian and early Christian times. Now called Navan Fort, it is located near the town of Armagh in Northen Ireland. It was the seat of the semi- historical king Conchobar, a subject of the medieval Irish tales of the Ulster cycle along with Cu Chulainn and other great warriors. St. Patrick established his base near Emain Macha, and it is still the primatial see of both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in Ireland.
Emancipation, Edict of (March 3, 1861) Manifesto issued by Alex¬ ander II that freed the serfs of the Russian Empire. Defeat in the Crimean War, change in public opinion, and the increasing number and violence of peasant revolts had convinced Alexander of the need for reform. The final edict was a compromise and fully satisfied no one, particularly the peasants. It immediately granted personal liberties to the serfs, but the process by which they were to acquire land was slow, complex, and expensive. Though it failed to create an economically viable class of peasant proprietors, its psychological impact was immense.
Emancipation Proclamation (1863) Edict issued by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves of the Confederacy. On taking office, Lincoln was concerned with preserving the Union and wanted only to prevent slavery from expanding into the Western territories; but, after the South seceded, there was no political reason to tolerate slavery. In Sep¬ tember 1862 he called on the seceded states to return to the Union or have their slaves declared free. When no state returned, he issued the procla¬ mation on Jan. 1, 1863. The edict had no power in the Confederacy, but it provided moral inspiration for the North and discouraged European countries from supporting the South. It also had the practical effect of permitting recruitment of African Americans for the Union army; by 1865 nearly 180,000 African American soldiers had enlisted. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865, officially abolished sla¬ very in the entire country.
embargo Legal action by a government or group of governments restricting the departure of vessels or movement of goods from some or all locations to one or more countries. A trade embargo is a prohibition on exports to one or more countries. A strategic embargo restricts only the sale of goods that make a direct and specific contribution to a country’s military power; similarly, an oil embargo prohibits only the export of oil. Broad embargoes often allow the export of certain goods (e.g., medicines or foodstuffs) to continue for humanitarian purposes, and most multilat¬ eral embargoes include escape clauses that specify a limited set of con¬ ditions under which exporters may be exempt from their prohibitions. An embargo is a tool of economic warfare that may be employed for a vari¬ ety of political purposes, including demonstrating resolve, sending a political signal, retaliating for another country’s actions, compelling a country to change its behaviour, deterring it from engaging in undesired activities, and weakening its military capability.
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Embargo Act ► Emerson I 617
Embargo Act Legislation by the U.S. Congress in December 1807 that closed U.S. ports to all exports and restricted imports from Britain. The act was Pres. Thomas Jefferson’s response to British and French interfer¬ ence with neutral U.S. merchant ships during the Napoleonic Wars. The embargo had little effect in Europe, but it imposed an unpopular restric¬ tion on New England merchants and exporters (see Hartford Convention). Legislation passed in 1809 lifted the embargo, but continued British inter¬ ference with U.S. shipping led to the War of 1812.
Embden Vem-danV, Gustav Georg (b. Nov. 10, 1874, Hamburg, Ger.—d. July 25, 1933, Nassau) German physiological chemist. He taught at the University of Frankfurt am Main from its founding in 1914. He conducted studies on the chemistry of carbohydrate metabolism and muscle contraction and was the first to discover and link all the steps in the conversion of glycogen to lactic acid. His studies focused mainly on chemical processes in living organisms, especially intermediate metabolic processes in liver tissue. By developing a technique to prevent tissue damage, Embden discovered the liver’s important role in metabolism and did preliminary studies that led to the investigation of normal sugar metabolism and of diabetes.