Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Few, William

(Encyclopedia)Few, William, 1748–1828, political leader in the American Revolution, b. near Baltimore. He was raised in North Carolina and was involved in the Regulator movement there. He later moved to Georgia. ...

Georgian literature

(Encyclopedia)Georgian literature. Early Georgian literature shows the influence of two distinctly different civilizations—medieval Eastern Orthodox Christianity and, later, Persia. The Passion of St. Shushanik, ...

Nathan, George Jean

(Encyclopedia)Nathan, George Jean, 1882–1958, American editor and drama critic, b. Fort Wayne, Ind. He left the New York Herald to join H. L. Mencken in editing Smart Set (1914–23), which they made into a guide...

Tiradentes

(Encyclopedia)Tiradentes tērəᵺĕnˈtəs [key], 1748–92, Brazilian patriot. His real name was José Joaquim da Silva Xavier. He gained his nickname, which means “tooth-puller,” working as a healer in his y...

Holbrook, Josiah

(Encyclopedia)Holbrook, Josiah, 1788–1854, American educator, founder of the lyceum movement, b. Derby, Conn., grad. Yale (1810). He experimented with various schools where manual training, farming, and formal i...

Clark, Francis Edward

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Francis Edward, 1851–1927, American Congregational clergyman, founder of Christian Endeavor. He was born of American parents in Aylmer, Que., and was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1873....

surrealism

(Encyclopedia)surrealism sərēˈəlĭzəm [key], literary and art movement influenced by Freudianism and dedicated to the expression of imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason an...

Tappan, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Tappan, Arthur tăpˈən [key], 1786–1865, American abolitionist, b. Northampton, Mass. He made a fortune in the dry-goods business in New York City and with his brother and partner Lewis Tappan gav...

Kosinski, Jerzy

(Encyclopedia)Kosinski, Jerzy jrˈzē kəzĭnˈskē [key], 1933–91, American writer, b. Łódź, Poland. He taught at the Univ. of Łódź before emigrating to the United States in 1957. In his best-known novel, ...

Harper, Ida Husted

(Encyclopedia)Harper, Ida Husted, 1851–1931, American woman suffragist. Allied with the woman-suffrage movement from 1898, she became the official reporter and historian of the National American Woman Suffrage As...