Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

307 results found

Griffith, D. W.

(Encyclopedia)Griffith, D. W. (David Llewelyn Wark Griffith), 1875–1948, American movie director and producer, b. La Grange, Ky. Griffith was the first major American film director. He began his film career as an...

Sterne, Laurence

(Encyclopedia)Sterne, Laurence stûrn [key], 1713–68, English author, b. Ireland. Educated at Cambridge, he entered the Anglican church and was given the living of Sutton-in-the-Forest, Yorkshire, in 1738, where ...

Zsigmond, Vilmos

(Encyclopedia)Zsigmond, Vilmos, 1930–2016, Hungarian-American cinematographer. As a film student in Budapest, he and fellow student (and later cinematographer) Laszlo Kovacs secretly filmed the street fighting as...

Aspin, Les

(Encyclopedia)Aspin, Les (Leslie Aspin, Jr.), 1938–95, U.S. politician and government official, b. Milwaukee, Wis. Running as a Democrat opposed to the Vietnam War, he won election as a U.S. Representative from W...

Hufstedler, Shirley Mount

(Encyclopedia)Hufstedler, Shirley Mount, 1925–2016, American jurist and U.S. secretary of education (1980–81), b. Denver, as Shirley Ann Mount, grad. Univ. of New Mexico (B.B.A. 1945) and Stanford Law School (L...

Elizabethton

(Encyclopedia)Elizabethton, city (2020 pop. 14,546), seat of Carter co., NE Tenn., on the Watauga River; inc. 1799. It is an industrial center where rayon, clothing, ...

Elkin, Stanley

(Encyclopedia)Elkin, Stanley, 1930–95, American writer, b. New York City. An offbeat fiction writer, Elkin had a gift for black comedy, fantastic imagery, bizarre situations, and a kind of lyrical bleakness, all ...

Harris, Patricia Roberts

(Encyclopedia)Harris, Patricia Roberts, 1924–85, U.S. government official, b. Mattoon, Ill. A lawyer who was active in the Democratic party, she was a law professor and dean at Howard Univ. during the 1960s and b...

Wise, Thomas James

(Encyclopedia)Wise, Thomas James, 1859–1937, English bibliographer and book collector. His famous Ashley Library of rare editions and manuscripts was acquired by the British Museum in 1937. His many bibliographie...

Young, Andrew Jackson, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Young, Andrew Jackson, Jr., 1932–, African-American leader, clergyman, and public official, b. New Orleans. He was a leading civil-rights activist in the 1960s and, as a Democrat from Georgia, serve...