Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Alger, Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Alger, Horatio ălˈjər [key], 1834–99, American writer of boys' stories, b. Revere, Mass. He wrote over 100 books for boys, the first, Ragged Dick, being published in 1867. By leading exemplary li...

Chapman, John Jay

(Encyclopedia)Chapman, John Jay, 1862–1933, American essayist and poet, b. New York City, grad. Harvard, 1885. He was admitted to the bar in 1888, but after 10 years abandoned law for literature. Active in the an...

Hall, James

(Encyclopedia)Hall, James, 1811–98, American geologist and paleontologist, b. Hingham, Mass., grad. Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), 1832. An authority on stratigraphy and invertebrate ...

Mori Ogai

(Encyclopedia)Mori Ogai mōˈrē ōˈgäē [key], 1862–1922, Japanese army physician, medical researcher, literary critic, novelist, translator, scholar, and playwright, he is now primarily remembered for his fic...

Mitropoulos, Dimitri

(Encyclopedia)Mitropoulos, Dimitri dēmēˈtrē mētrôˈpo͞olôs [key], 1896–1960, Greek-American conductor. A piano pupil of Busoni, in 1930 he substituted for an indisposed piano soloist and simultaneously co...

Lewis, Morgan

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Morgan, 1754–1844, American army officer and governor of New York (1804–7), b. New York City; son of Francis Lewis. After serving in the American Revolution, he held a variety of state offi...

Mayer, Julius Robert von

(Encyclopedia)Mayer, Julius Robert von, 1814–78, German physician and physicist, studied medicine at Tübingen, Munich, and Paris. From a consideration of the generation of animal heat, he was led to determine th...

Kane, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Kane, Paul, 1810–71, Canadian painter, b. Ireland. Kane went to Toronto as a child. He studied art in the United States (1836–41) and in Europe (1841–45). After his return to Canada (1845) he ma...

Walton, Izaak

(Encyclopedia)Walton, Izaak, 1593–1683, English writer. He wrote one of the most famous books in the English language, The Compleat Angler; or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation. The first edition appeared in 16...

Woolman, John

(Encyclopedia)Woolman, John, 1720–72, American Quaker leader, b. near Mt. Holly, N.J. Originally a tailor and shopkeeper, Woolman was recorded a minister (1743) by the Burlington, N.J., Meeting. Thereafter he mad...