Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

White, T. H.

(Encyclopedia)White, T. H. (Terence Hanbury White), 1906–64, British author, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India. His best-known work, the tetralogy The Once and Future King (1939–58), is a dramatic and delightfully ...

Tintagel

(Encyclopedia)Tintagel tĭntāˈjəl [key], small town, Cornwall, SW England. It is S of Tintagel Head, a promontory connected to the mainland by a narrow, rocky neck of land. The ruined Tintagel Castle, which exte...

pessimism

(Encyclopedia)pessimism, philosophical opinion or doctrine that evil predominates over good; the opposite of optimism. Systematic forms of pessimism may be found in philosophy and religion. In religion Buddhism and...

Doherty, Charles Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Doherty, Charles Joseph dōˈərtē [key], 1855–1931, Canadian jurist and statesman. After serving (1891–1906) as judge of the superior court of Quebec prov., he retired (1906) from the bench and ...

Cobb, Lee J.

(Encyclopedia)Cobb, Lee J., 1911–76, American actor, b. New York City. He first performed with the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse in 1929 and made his Broadway debut in Crime and Punishment (1935). Cobb created the ...

Ochoa, Severo

(Encyclopedia)Ochoa, Severo sāvāˈrō ōchōˈä [key], 1905–93, American biochemist and educator, b. Spain, M.D. Univ. of Madrid, 1929. After teaching at the universities of Madrid, Heidelberg, and Oxford, he ...

Boult, Sir Adrian

(Encyclopedia)Boult, Sir Adrian bōlt [key], 1889–1983, English conductor. Boult studied conducting in Leipzig with Arthur Nikisch (1912–13). In 1930 he became conductor of the newly formed BBC Symphony Orchest...

Schultz, Theodore William

(Encyclopedia)Schultz, Theodore William, 1902–98, American economist; b. Arlington, S.Dak. He taught at Iowa State College (1930–43) and the Univ. of Chicago (1943–67), but remained active at Chicago long aft...

Geoffrey of Monmouth

(Encyclopedia)Geoffrey of Monmouth mŏnˈməth [key], c.1100–1154, English author. He was probably born at Monmouth and was of either Breton or Welsh descent. In 1152 he was named bishop of St. Asaph in Wales. Hi...

Hunt, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Hunt, Henry, 1773–1835, English radical politician. A powerful orator, popular with the laboring classes, Hunt was quarrelsome and stubborn but a sincere proponent of electoral and other reforms. He...