Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kurosawa, Akira

(Encyclopedia)Kurosawa, Akira äkēˈrä ko͞orōˈsäwä [key], 1910–98, Japanese film director, scriptwriter, and producer, b. Tokyo. He is regarded as one of the world's greatest directors. In Rashomon (1950),...

Thomson, Virgil

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Virgil, 1896–1989, American composer, critic, and organist, b. Kansas City, Mo. Thomson studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Until about 1926 he wrote in a dissonant, neoclassic style, bu...

Satie, Erik

(Encyclopedia)Satie, Erik ārēkˈ sätēˈ [key], 1866–1925, French composer, studied at the Paris Conservatory; pupil of Vincent D'Indy and Albert Roussel at the Schola Cantorum. He early realized that the roma...

French architecture

(Encyclopedia)French architecture, structures created in the area of Europe that is now France. Engineers and architects, including François Hennebique, Auguste Perret, and Tony Garnier, pioneered the use of rei...

Diagoras of Rhodes

(Encyclopedia)Diagoras of Rhodes, ancient Greek athlete, fl. 5th cent. b.c. A boxer and wrester, he won an Olympic championship in 464 b.c. and won numerous times at the Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games. Pindar ...

Abercrombie, Lascelles

(Encyclopedia)Abercrombie, Lascelles lăsˈəlz [key], 1881–1938, English poet and critic. Complex and cerebral in style, his poetry often expresses his distaste for 20th-century industrialism. His volumes of poe...

Daulatabad

(Encyclopedia)Daulatabad doulətəbädˈ [key], village, Maharashtra state, W central India. Its 13th-century fortress is built atop a conical rock c.500 ft (150 m) high. The Chand Minar (1294), a minaret of Turkis...

Chalkley, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Chalkley, Thomas chôˈklē [key], 1675–1741, Quaker mariner and missionary preacher, b. England. He made his home after 1701 in Philadelphia. He traded chiefly with the West Indies, navigating his ...

Euphronios

(Encyclopedia)Euphronios yo͞ofrōˈnēəs [key], c.520–470 b.c., Greek potter and painter. He spent his early career as a painter, working mainly in the red-figure style. In his later years, he was known primari...

Field, John

(Encyclopedia)Field, John, 1782–1837, Irish composer and pianist. In London he studied with Clementi, with whom he later toured Europe. In 1804 he settled in Russia. Field was a successful pianist and his style o...