Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Irving, Sir Henry

(Encyclopedia)Irving, Sir Henry, 1838–1905, English actor and theatrical manager, originally named John Henry Brodribb. He made his debut in 1856 and achieved fame in 1871 with his portrayal of Mathias in Leopold...

Heizer, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Heizer, Michael, 1944–, American sculptor and painter, b. Berkeley, Calif., studied San Francisco Art Institute (1963–64). Heizer was one of the artists who developed land art in the late 1960s an...

anthem

(Encyclopedia)anthem [ultimately from antiphon], short nonliturgical choral composition used in Protestant services, usually accompanied and having an English text. The term is used in a broader sense for “nation...

Freud, Lucian Michael

(Encyclopedia)Freud, Lucian Michael 1922–2011, British painter, b. Berlin. A grandson of Sigmund Freud, he settled in England in 1933 and became a British subject in 1939. He is widely regarded as one of the fine...

analog-to-digital conversion

(Encyclopedia)analog-to-digital or A/D conversion, the process of changing continuously varying data, such as voltage, current, or shaft rotation, into discrete digital quantities that represent the magnitude of th...

Garland, Judy

(Encyclopedia)Garland, Judy, 1922–69, American singer and film actress, b. Grand Rapids, Minn., originally named Frances Gumm. She sang in her father's theater from the age of four as one of The Gumm Sisters; she...

Meyerhold, Vsevolod

(Encyclopedia)Meyerhold, Vsevolod fəsyĕˈvəlŭt mēˈûrhōlt [key], 1874–1940?, Russian theatrical director and producer. Meyerhold led the revolt against naturalism in the Russian theater. Working with the M...

nihilism

(Encyclopedia)nihilism nīˈəlĭzəm [key], theory of revolution popular among Russian extremists until the fall of the czarist government (1917); the theory was given its name by Ivan Turgenev in his novel Father...

Levi, Primo

(Encyclopedia)Levi, Primo prēˈmō lāˈvē [key], 1919–87, Italian writer. A chemist of Jewish descent, Levi was sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz during World War II. His first memoir, If This Is a M...

Patton, George Smith, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Patton, George Smith, Jr., 1885–1945, American general, b. San Gabriel, Calif. A graduate of West Point (1909), he served in World War I and was wounded while commanding a tank brigade in France. Su...

Browse by Subject