Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Yeats, Jack Butler

(Encyclopedia)Yeats, Jack Butler yāts [key], 1871–1957, Irish painter, son of the painter John Butler Yeats and brother of the poet William Butler Yeats. He began his career as an illustrator and produced his fi...

Bauhin, Gaspard

(Encyclopedia)Bauhin, Gaspard gäspärˈ bōăNˈ [key], 1560–1624, Swiss botanist and doctor of medicine, of French descent. His early classification of plants by genus and species in his chief work, the Pinax t...

Lazarus

(Encyclopedia)Lazarus lăzˈərəs [key] [Gr.,=Heb., Eleazar], in the New Testament. 1 Brother of Mary and Martha of Bethany who, after four days in the tomb, was brought back to life by Jesus. 2 Beggar in the para...

Lalemant, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lalemant, Charles shärl lälmäNˈ [key], 1587–1674, French Jesuit missionary in North America; brother of Jérôme Lalemant and uncle of Gabriel Lalemant. He arrived in Quebec in 1625 and acted as...

Lander, Richard Lemon

(Encyclopedia)Lander, Richard Lemon, 1804–34, English explorer. He accompanied Clapperton to the Niger River in 1827 and brought back Clapperton's journal, which was published (1829) with an account of Lander's r...

Atreus

(Encyclopedia)Atreus āˈtrēəs [key], in Greek mythology, the son of Pelops and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. He vied with his brother Thyestes for the throne of Mycenae. When Thyestes seduced Atreus' wif...

Lovejoy, Owen

(Encyclopedia)Lovejoy, Owen, 1811–64, American abolitionist, b. Albion, Maine, educated at Bowdoin College. He witnessed the killing of his brother Elijah P. Lovejoy, under whom he had studied for the ministry. T...

Lurçat, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Lurçat, Jean zhäN lürsăˈ [key], 1892–1966, French artist and writer. Lurçat worked as a painter and lithographer, illustrating numerous books. He is best known, however, as a tapestry designer...

Louis III, French king

(Encyclopedia)Louis III, c.863–882, French king, son of King Louis II. He became joint ruler with his brother Carloman on the death of Louis II (879), despite the attempts of Louis the Younger to become French ki...

Mattarella, Sergio

(Encyclopedia)Mattarella, Sergio, 1941–, Italian political leader. Born into a prominent Sicilian family, he studied law at the Sapienza Univ. of Rome and taught constitutional law at the Univ. of Palermo. He was...