Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

pessimism

(Encyclopedia)pessimism, philosophical opinion or doctrine that evil predominates over good; the opposite of optimism. Systematic forms of pessimism may be found in philosophy and religion. In religion Buddhism and...

White, T. H.

(Encyclopedia)White, T. H. (Terence Hanbury White), 1906–64, British author, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India. His best-known work, the tetralogy The Once and Future King (1939–58), is a dramatic and delightfully ...

Mazursky, Paul

(Encyclopedia) Mazursky, Paul (Irwin Lawrence Mazursky), 1939-2014, American film director, screenwriter, and actor, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Brooklyn College (B.A., 1951)...

Fogel, Robert William

(Encyclopedia)Fogel, Robert William, 1926–2013, American economic historian, b. New York City, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1964. He taught at Univ. of Chicago (1964–75, 1981–2013) and Harvard (1975–81). In 1993 Fo...

Penderecki, Krzysztof

(Encyclopedia)Penderecki, Krzysztof kshĭshˈtôf pändĕrĕtsˈkē [key], 1933–2020, Polish composer. His music is characterized by unusual sonorities, and he devised his own system of notation to convey the eff...

Falkland Islands

(Encyclopedia)Falkland Islands fôkˈlənd [key], Span. Islas Malvinas, group of islands (2015 est. pop. 3,000), 4,618 sq mi (11,961 sq km), S Atlantic, c.300 mi (480 km) E of the Strait of Magellan. The islands ar...

Ochoa, Severo

(Encyclopedia)Ochoa, Severo sāvāˈrō ōchōˈä [key], 1905–93, American biochemist and educator, b. Spain, M.D. Univ. of Madrid, 1929. After teaching at the universities of Madrid, Heidelberg, and Oxford, he ...

Schultz, Theodore William

(Encyclopedia)Schultz, Theodore William, 1902–98, American economist; b. Arlington, S.Dak. He taught at Iowa State College (1930–43) and the Univ. of Chicago (1943–67), but remained active at Chicago long aft...

Cobb, Lee J.

(Encyclopedia)Cobb, Lee J., 1911–76, American actor, b. New York City. He first performed with the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse in 1929 and made his Broadway debut in Crime and Punishment (1935). Cobb created the ...

Doherty, Charles Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Doherty, Charles Joseph dōˈərtē [key], 1855–1931, Canadian jurist and statesman. After serving (1891–1906) as judge of the superior court of Quebec prov., he retired (1906) from the bench and ...