Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rice, Anne

(Encyclopedia) Rice, Anne, 1941-2021, American novelist, b. New Orleans, La., as Howard Katherine O'Brien, San Francisco State Univ. (B.A., 1964; M.A., 1972). Rice wa...

Freedmen's Bureau

(Encyclopedia)Freedmen's Bureau, in U.S. history, a federal agency, formed to aid and protect the newly freed blacks in the South after the Civil War. Established by an act of Mar. 3, 1865, under the name “bureau...

Boccaccio, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Boccaccio, Giovanni jōvänˈnē [key], 1313–75, Italian poet and storyteller, author of the Decameron. Born in Paris, the illegitimate son of a Tuscan merchant and a French woman, he was educated a...

Alegría, Claribel

(Encyclopedia)Alegría, Claribel, 1924–2018, Nicaraguan-Salvadoran poet, b. Nicaragua as Clara Isabel Alegría Vides, grad. George Washington Univ. (B.A., 1948). Her family went into exile in El Salvador when she...

Charles, Ray

(Encyclopedia)Charles, Ray (Ray Charles Robinson), 1930–2004, African-American musician and composer, b. Albany, Ga. Blinded at age seven, he was raised in Florida and at 16 began singing in a local hillbilly gro...

Eugénie

(Encyclopedia)Eugénie yo͞ojēˈnē, Fr. özhānēˈ [key], 1826–1920, empress of the French (1853–70), consort of Napoleon III. Born in Spain, she was christened Eugenia María de Montijo de Guzmán and was t...

Fast, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Fast, Howard, 1914–2003, American author, b. New York City. A prolific writer, he is best known for historical novels that mainly concern rebellion against various forms of tyranny. They include Cit...

Fossey, Dian

(Encyclopedia)Fossey, Dian fôˈsē, fŏsˈē [key], 1932–85, American zoologist, b. San Francisco, who lived and worked with the mountain gorillas of central Africa, adding immeasurably to the understanding of t...

Guy Blache, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Guy Blache or Guy-Blaché, Alice, 1873–1968, French-American filmmaker, b. Paris as Alice Guy. The first woman filmmaker, she directed, produced, wrote screenplays for, or supervised some 1,000 film...

Mauriac, François

(Encyclopedia)Mauriac, François fräNswäˈ mōryäkˈ [key], 1885–1970, French writer. Mauriac achieved success in 1922 and 1923 with Le Baiser au lépreux and Genitrix (tr. of both in The Family, 1930). Genera...