Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Chanel, Coco

(Encyclopedia)Chanel, Coco (Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel) shənĕlˈ [key], 1883–1971, French fashion designer b. Saumur. She established a millinery shop in Deauville in 1909, founded her first house of couture ther...

Altgeld, John Peter

(Encyclopedia)Altgeld, John Peter ältˈgĕlt [key], 1847–1902, American politician, governor of Illinois (1892–96), b. Germany. He was taken by his immigrant parents to Ohio, where he grew up with little forma...

Göttingen

(Encyclopedia)Göttingen götˈĭng-ən [key], city, Lower Saxony, central Germany, on the Leine River. It is ...

Moses, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Moses, Robert, 1888–1981, U.S. public official, b. New Haven, Conn. He was appointed (1919) by Alfred E. Smith to the committee to study and revamp New York state government machinery, became (1924)...

Bowen, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Bowen, Elizabeth bōˈĭn [key], 1899–1973, Anglo-Irish novelist, b. Dublin. In impeccable prose she treated love and frustration through studies of complex psychological relationships. Her novels i...

Adams, Will

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Will (William Adams), 1564?–1620, first Englishman to visit Japan. As pilot of a Dutch ship searching for gold and trade, he reached Japan in 1600. At first imprisoned and sentenced to death,...

Ozick, Cynthia

(Encyclopedia)Ozick, Cynthia, 1928–, American writer, b. New York City, grad. New York Univ. (B.A., 1949), Ohio State Univ. (M.A., 1950). Her fiction, written with high intelligence, elegant incisiveness, and sha...

Vinland

(Encyclopedia)Vinland or Wineland, section of North America discovered by Leif Ericsson in the 11th cent. The sources for the knowledge of Leif Ericsson's exploration differ as to whether it was planned or accident...

Ebionites

(Encyclopedia)Ebionites ēˈbēənītsˌ, ĕbˈē– [key] [Aramaic,=poor], Jewish-Christian sect of rural ancient Palestine, of the first centuries after Jesus. There were two groups, according to Origen. The Juda...

Fish, Stuyvesant

(Encyclopedia)Fish, Stuyvesant stīˈvəsənt [key], 1851–1923, American railroad executive, b. New York City; son of Hamilton Fish (1808–93). He became (1877) a director of the Illinois Central RR, and as its ...