Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rivas, Ángel de Saavedra, duque de

(Encyclopedia)Rivas, Ángel de Saavedra, duque de änˈhĕl ᵺā säˌävāˈᵺrä do͞oˈkā ᵺā rēˈväs [key], 1791–1865, Spanish romantic poet and dramatist. A liberal, Rivas was condemned to death and f...

American Ballet Theatre

(Encyclopedia)American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the foremost international dance companies of the 20th and 21st cents. It was founded in 1937 as the Mordkin Ballet and reorganized as the Ballet Theatre in 1940 ...

Ferrante, Elena

(Encyclopedia)Ferrante, Elena, pseud. of the contemporary writer often considered the finest Italian novelist of her generation; the details of her personal life are a closely guarded secret. Her novels, the first ...

Gates, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Gates, Sir Thomas, fl. 1585–1621, English colonial governor of Virginia. He was knighted for his services under the 2d earl of Essex in the successful expedition against Cádiz in 1596. Gates, who h...

Maupassant, Guy de

(Encyclopedia)Maupassant, Guy de gē də mōpäsäNˈ [key], 1850–93, French novelist and short-story writer, of an ancient Norman family. He worked in a government office at Paris and became known c.1880 as the ...

Asunción

(Encyclopedia)Asunción äso͞onsyōˈn [key], city, S Paraguay, capital of Paraguay, on the Paraguay River. It is the principal port and chief industrial and cultural center of Paragua...

Le Clézio, Jean-Marie Gustave

(Encyclopedia)Le Clézio, Jean-Marie Gustave, 1940–, French novelist, b. Nice, grad. Univ. of Nice (L. ès L., 1963), Univ. of Aix-en-Provence (M.A., 1964), Univ. of Perpignan (D. ès L., 1983). He spent much of ...

Cela, Camilo José

(Encyclopedia)Cela, Camilo José kämēˈlō hōsāˈ thāˈlä [key], 1916–2002, Spanish novelist, short-story writer, and poet, b. Iria Flavia. Among the writers to emerge after the Spanish civil war, he won cr...

Charente-Maritime

(Encyclopedia)Charente-Maritime shäräNtˈ-märētēmˈ [key], department, W France, on the Atlantic coast, formerly ...

Jennings

(Encyclopedia)Jennings, city (1990 pop. 11,305), seat of Jefferson Davis parish, SW La., on the Mermentau River; inc. 1888. Cotton and rice are grown, there is a bottling plant, and drugs, machinery, apparel, and w...

Browse by Subject