Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

437 results found

essay

(Encyclopedia)essay, relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view. Although ...

Rollins, Sonny

(Encyclopedia)Rollins, Sonny (Theodore Walter Rollins), 1930–, African-American tenor saxophonist and composer, b. New York City. A master of jazz improvisation, Ro...

Sandage, Allan Rex

(Encyclopedia)Sandage, Allan Rex, 1926–2010, American astronomer, b. Iowa City, Iowa, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1953. He was a graduate student under Walter Baade and an assistant to Edwin Hubble....

Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Throckmorton or Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas, 1515–71, English diplomat. A relative of Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, he became a staunch Protestant and gained the favor of the young Edwa...

Ayler, Albert

(Encyclopedia) Ayler, Albert, 1936-1970, free-jazz saxophonist, b. Cleveland, OH. Ayler was taught to play saxophone by his father, a semiprofessional musician, and the two often performed together in...

Willet, Marinus

(Encyclopedia)Willet, Marinus mərēˈnəs wĭlˈĭt [key], 1740–1830, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Jamaica, N.Y. In the French and Indian War he was (1758) a member of the expeditions against Fort Ticonder...

Blunt, Anthony Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Blunt, Anthony Frederick, 1907–83, English art historian and Soviet spy, grad. Cambridge. Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art after 1947 and professor of the history of art at the Univ. of Lo...

Moog, Robert Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Moog, Robert Arthur mōg [key], 1934–2005, American electronic engineer, inventor of the Moog synthesizer, b. New York City, grad. Queens College (B.S, 1957), Columbia (B.S., 1957), Cornell (Ph.D., ...

mahogany

(Encyclopedia)mahogany, common name for the Meliaceae, a widely distributed family of chiefly tropical shrubs and trees, often having scented wood. The valuable hardwood called mahogany is obtained from many member...

Manzoni, Alessandro

(Encyclopedia)Manzoni, Alessandro älās-sänˈdrō mändzôˈnē [key], 1785–1873, Italian novelist and poet. Taken in his youth to Paris by his mother in 1805, Manzoni embraced the deism that he was later to di...