Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cankar, Ivan

(Encyclopedia)Cankar, Ivan ēvänˈ tsänˈkär [key], 1876–1918, Slovenian poet. Considered one of the great Slovenian literary figures, he was influential in the development of modern satire, symbolic drama, an...

Stubbs, William

(Encyclopedia)Stubbs, William, 1825–1901, English historian, educated at Oxford. Ordained in 1850, he was a professor of modern history at Oxford until in 1884 he was made bishop of Chester. Stubbs's critical stu...

Succoth

(Encyclopedia)Succoth sŭkˈŏth [key], in the Bible. 1 City, ancient Palestine, E of the Jordan, by the Jabbok River, where Jacob paused on his return to his native land. Through it Gideon passed in pursuit of the...

Smith, Logan Pearsall

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Logan Pearsall, 1865–1946, Anglo-American author, b. Millville, N.J. After 1888 he lived in England, studied at Oxford, and became a man of letters. His brief and exquisite essays were collec...

Teutoburg Forest

(Encyclopedia)Teutoburg Forest, Ger. Teutoburger Wald, hilly range, in NW Germany, stretching roughly between Osnabrück and Paderborn. It is forested, and it rises to 1,465 ft (447 m) S of Detmold. Near Detmold is...

blowgun

(Encyclopedia)blowgun, hollow tube from which a dart or an arrow is blown by a person's breath. The arrow was usually tipped with a poison, such as curare, which would stun or kill the struck prey. Blowguns were wi...

Pickett, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Pickett, Joseph, 1848–1918, American primitive painter, b. New Hope, Pa., where he lived all his life. He worked as a carpenter, canal-boat builder, and grocer. At about age 65, Pickett turned to pa...

pipe rolls

(Encyclopedia)pipe rolls, ancient records of the crown revenue and expenditures of England, so called, probably, because of the pipelike form of the rolled parchments on which these records were kept. The oldest ex...

Seifert, Jaroslav

(Encyclopedia)Seifert, Jaroslav, 1901–86, Czech poet. Starting as a revolutionary “proletarian” poet, Seifert soon began to emphasize fantasy and enchantment as antidotes to modern technological civilization....

silverpoint

(Encyclopedia)silverpoint, method of drawing whereby a silver-tipped instrument is dragged across paper prepared with ground bone dust and gum water and then tinted with a pigment. The procedure results in drawings...

Browse by Subject