Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Brougham, Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

(Encyclopedia)Brougham, Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux bro͞om, vôz, vôks [key], 1778–1868, British statesman, b. Edinburgh. As a young lawyer in Scotland he helped to found (1802) the Edinburgh Revie...

short story

(Encyclopedia)short story, brief prose fiction. The term covers a wide variety of narratives—from stories in which the main focus is on the course of events to studies of character, from the “short short” sto...

Hatton, Sir Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Hatton, Sir Christopher, 1540–91, English courtier. He became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, from whom he received offices, honors, and lands. Knighted in 1578, he acted as Elizabeth's spokesman i...

William of Malmesbury

(Encyclopedia)William of Malmesbury mämzˈbərē [key], c.1096–1143, English writer, monk of Malmesbury. His most important work is the Gesta regum Anglorum, a history of the kings of England from 449 to 1127, w...

Barton, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Barton, Elizabeth, 1506?–1534, English prophet, called the Maid of Kent or the Nun of Kent. She was a domestic servant who, after a period of illness, began (c.1525) to go into trances and to utter ...

Dunbar

(Encyclopedia)Dunbar, town, East Lothian, SE Scotland, on the North Sea. It is a fishing center and seaside resort. Dunbar Castle was held by “Black Agnes,” count...

Lockwood, James Booth

(Encyclopedia)Lockwood, James Booth, 1852–84, American arctic explorer, b. Annapolis, Md. In 1873 he was commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S. army. In 1881, Lockwood joined the arctic expedition of Adolphus...

Tudor

(Encyclopedia)Tudor, royal family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Its founder was Owen Tudor, of a Welsh family of great antiquity, who was a squire at the court of Henry V and who married that king's widow, ...

Steiner, George

(Encyclopedia)Steiner, George, 1929–2020, American critic, essayist, novelist, and educator, b. Paris, France, immigrated to the United States 1940, became a U.S. citizen 1944; Ph.D. Oxford, 195). He spoke and wr...

Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex

(Encyclopedia)Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex, 1485?–1540, English statesman. While a young man he lived abroad as a soldier, accountant, and merchant, and on his return (c.1512) to England he engaged in the wool...

Browse by Subject