Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Beckett, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Beckett, Samuel bĕkˈĭt [key], 1906–89, Anglo-French playwright and novelist, b. Dublin. Beckett studied and taught in Paris before settling there permanently in 1937. He wrote primarily in French...

Purchas, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Purchas, Samuel pûrˈkəs, –chəs [key], 1577?–1626, English clergyman and compiler of travel literature, b. Essex. Chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, he later was rector of St. Martin's C...

Birch, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Birch, Samuel, 1813–85, English Egyptologist. He wrote a dictionary of hieroglyphics and translated the Book of the Dead.

Bronfman, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Bronfman, Samuel: see under Bronfman, Edgar Miles, Sr. ...

Rogers, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, Samuel, 1763–1855, English poet. Independently wealthy, he owned a beautiful home on St. James Street, Westminster, which became the center of literary society. He was famous for his convers...

Bard, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Bard, Samuel, see under Bard, John. ...

Bamford, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Bamford, Samuel, 1788–1872, English weaver, poet, and social reformer. Always sympathetic toward the working class, he was jailed in 1819 for his part in the Peterloo massacre. His dialect verses we...

Provoost, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Provoost, Samuel prōˈvōst [key], 1742–1815, first Episcopal bishop of New York, b. New York City, grad. King's College (now Columbia Univ.), 1758. He studied at Cambridge and in 1766 was ordained...

Richardson, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Samuel, 1689–1761, English novelist, b. Derbyshire. When he was 50 and a prosperous printer, Richardson was asked to compose a guide to letter writing. The idea of introducing a central ...

Gravely, Samuel Lee, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Gravely, Samuel Lee, Jr., 1922–2004, U.S. naval officer, the first African American to hold the rank of admiral, b. Richmond, Va. Joining the Naval Reserves in 1942, he became (1944) the first Afric...

Browse by Subject