Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

176 results found

Ventris, Michael George Francis

(Encyclopedia)Ventris, Michael George Francis, 1922–56, English linguist. Ventris was a student of architecture, but he became interested in the untranslated Mycenaean scripts, particularly Linear B, which was fo...

Waterloo, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Waterloo, city (1990 pop. 66,467), seat of Black Hawk co., NE Iowa, on the Cedar River; inc. 1868. Originally a center for sawmills and flour mills, Waterloo is a trade and industrial center in a farm...

Wells, David Ames

(Encyclopedia)Wells, David Ames, 1828–98, American economist, b. Springfield, Mass., grad. Williams, 1847, and Lawrence Scientific School, Cambridge, Mass., 1851. Early in life he wrote several popular books on s...

Reynolds, Debbie

(Encyclopedia) Reynolds, Debbie, 1932-2016, American actress, singer, and dancer, b. El Paso, Tx., as Mary Frances Reynolds. Reynolds’ family relocated from El Paso...

Jones, James

(Encyclopedia)Jones, James, 1921–77, American novelist, b. Robinson, Ill. Written in the tradition of naturalism, his novels often celebrate the endurance of man. From Here to Eternity (1951), his best-known work...

Urquhart, David

(Encyclopedia)Urquhart, David ûrˈkərt [key], 1805–77, British diplomat and writer. He served (1831–37) in various diplomatic capacities in Constantinople but was recalled because of his hostility to Russia. ...

Defoe, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Defoe or De Foe, Daniel dĭfōˈ [key], 1660?–1731, English writer, b. London. He was nearly sixty when he turned to writing novels. In 1719 he published his famous Life and Strange Surprising Adv...

Thomas, Gospel of

(Encyclopedia)Thomas, Gospel of, a collection of sayings, composed originally in Greek, attributed to the “living” (i.e., resurrected) Jesus. Some of the sayings were previously known from papyri discovered at ...

North Little Rock

(Encyclopedia)North Little Rock, city (1990 pop. 61,741), Pulaski co., central Ark., on the Arkansas River opposite Little Rock; settled c.1856, inc. as a city 1903. North Little Rock lies in a cotton, rice, soybea...

Judson, Adoniram

(Encyclopedia)Judson, Adoniram ădənīˈrəm [key], 1788–1850, American Baptist missionary, b. Malden, Mass. At Andover Theological Seminary, he became the leader of a missionary movement out of which grew the A...