Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kautsky, Karl Johann

(Encyclopedia)Kautsky, Karl Johann kärl yōˈhän koutˈskē [key], 1854–1938, German-Austrian socialist, b. Prague. A leading figure in the effort to spread Marxist doctrine in Germany, he was the principal dev...

Formulas for Various Areas (table)

(Encyclopedia)Formulas for Various Areas 1 The abbreviations used are: b = base (length of any side of a plane figure); a = altitude (perpendicular distance from the farthest point of the figure to t...

Randolph, John

(Encyclopedia)Randolph, John, 1773–1833, American legislator, known as John Randolph of Roanoke, b. Prince George co., Va. He briefly studied law under his cousin Edmund Randolph. He served in the U.S. House of R...

Sturm und Drang

(Encyclopedia)Sturm und Drang shto͝orm o͝ont dräng [key] or Storm and Stress, movement in German literature that flourished from c.1770 to c.1784. It takes its name from a play by F. M. von Klinger, Wirrwarr; od...

Bruce, Lenny

(Encyclopedia)Bruce, Lenny, 1925–66, American comedian, b. Long Island, N.Y., as Leonard Alfred Schneider. Possessed of a cynical, surreal, and intensely comic view of the world, Bruce brutally satirized such sen...

precession of the equinoxes

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Precession of the equinoxes (the points at which the earth's celestial equator intersects its ecliptic) is due to the slow rotation of the earth's axis around a perpendicular to the ecliptic. ...

Gates, John Warne

(Encyclopedia)Gates, John Warne, 1855–1911, American financier and promoter, known as Bet-a-Million Gates, b. near Chicago. He discovered a market for wire fencing on the Western plains, began the manufacture of ...

Willard, Solomon

(Encyclopedia)Willard, Solomon, 1783–1861, American architect and sculptor, b. Petersham, Mass. Arriving in Boston in 1804, he eventually became a leading architect; he both designed and supervised the erection o...

Marquet, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Marquet, Albert älbĕrˈ märkāˈ [key], 1875–1947, French painter. In 1894 he met Matisse and later became associated with fauvism. His exuberantly colored figure studies are clearly fauvist. Mar...

Kolbe, Georg

(Encyclopedia)Kolbe, Georg gāˈôrkh kôlˈbə [key], 1877–1947, German sculptor. Kolbe studied painting and after meeting Rodin turned to sculpture, working in Berlin from 1903 until his death. He is best known...