Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

153 results found

Low, Juliette Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Low, Juliette Gordon, 1860–1927, American founder of the Girl Scouts, b. Savannah, Ga., as Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon. From a prominent Southern family, she met Robert Baden-Powell, founder of th...

Memnon

(Encyclopedia)Memnon mĕmˈnŏn [key], in Greek mythology, king of Ethiopia, son of Tithonus and Eos. In the Trojan War he fought against the Greeks, and after he had killed Antilochus, he himself was killed by Ach...

Krasiński, Zygmunt, Count

(Encyclopedia)Krasiński, Zygmunt, Count zĭgˈmo͝ont kräsēnˈyəskē [key], 1812–59, Polish romantic poet. An ardent patriot and Slavophile, he lived much of his life abroad. His majestic works, often set in ...

vigil

(Encyclopedia)vigil vĭjˈəl [key] [Lat.,=watch], in Christian calendars, eve of a feast, a day of penitential preparation. In ancient times worshipers gathered for vespers before a great feast and then waited out...

Doughty, Charles Montagu

(Encyclopedia)Doughty, Charles Montagu dōˈtē, douˈtē [key], 1843–1926, English author and traveler. He is best known for his Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), describing his life among the Bedouins. Now cons...

Shimazaki Toson

(Encyclopedia)Shimazaki Toson shēˈmäˈzäˈkē tōˈsōn [key], 1872–1943, Japanese poet and novelist. A pioneer in the establishment of a new Japanese verse form, Toson later turned his talents to prose ficti...

Firbank, Ronald

(Encyclopedia)Firbank, Ronald (Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank), 1886–1926, English author. Of a delicate and eccentric nature, Firbank lived the life of a leisured aesthete. His novels, which have appealed to a s...

San Juan, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)San Juan săn wän [key], river, c.400 mi (640 km) long, rising in the San Juan Mts., SW Colo., and flowing generally W through N.Mex. and Utah to Lake Powell on the Colorado River. Navajo Dam, part o...

Childe, Vere Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Childe, Vere Gordon, 1892–1957, British archaeologist, b. Australia. An Oxford graduate, he taught at the Univ. of Edinburgh (1927–46) and the Univ. of London (1946–56). He gained renown for his...

Russell, Charles Taze

(Encyclopedia)Russell, Charles Taze, 1852–1916, founder of the movement whose followers are known as Russellites, as Bible Students, and (since 1931) as Jehovah's Witnesses, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. There he predicted ...

Browse by Subject