Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mackenzie, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Mackenzie, Sir William, 1849–1923, Canadian railroad builder and financier, b. Ontario. In the early 1870s he became a railroad contractor. He constructed portions of the Canadian National and the C...

Howe, Samuel Gridley

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Samuel Gridley, 1801–76, American reformer and philanthropist, b. Boston, Mass., grad. Brown, 1821, M.D. Harvard, 1824. He began his life-long service to others by going to Greece to aid in it...

Newton, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Newton. 1 City (1990 pop. 16,700), seat of Harvey co., S central Kans., in an agricultural area; inc. 1872. It is a railroad division point with railroad shops and has a large mobile home industry in ...

Tillett, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Tillett, Benjamin tĭlˈĭt [key], 1860–1943, English labor organizer, b. Bristol, England. With Tom Mann and John Burns, he led the dock strike of 1889, the first big step toward industrial unionis...

Carossa, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Carossa, Hans häns kärôsˈä [key], 1878–1956, German poet and novelist. His autobiographical novel Childhood (1922, tr. 1930) and its sequels (1928, 1941) are noted for clear, graceful style. F�...

Jong, Erica

(Encyclopedia)Jong, Erica (Erica Mann Jong) jông, zhông [key], 1942–, American novelist and poet, b. New York City. She created a sensation with Fear of Flying (1973), a comic, picaresque novel of sex and psych...

Gentileschi, Artemisia

(Encyclopedia)Gentileschi, Artemisia ärˌtāmēˈzhə jānˌtēlĕsˈkē [key], c.1597–c.1652, Tuscan painter, daughter and pupil of Orazio Gentileschi, b. Rome. She studied with her father's collaborator, Agost...

Faust

(Encyclopedia)Faust yōˈhän [key], fl. 16th cent., learned German doctor who traveled widely, performed magical feats, and died under mysterious circumstances. According to legend he had sold his soul to the devi...

Darcy, Thomas Darcy, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Darcy, Thomas Darcy, Baron därˈsē [key], 1467–1537, English nobleman. He served in a number of military expeditions for Henry VII and for the young Henry VIII. He disapproved of Henry VIII's divo...

Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes

(Encyclopedia)Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes, 1823–62, American lawyer, b. Jefferson co., Ga.; brother of Howell Cobb. Admitted to the bar in 1842, he edited 20 volumes of the Georgia supreme court reports (1849–57)...