Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

filibuster

(Encyclopedia)filibuster, term used to designate obstructionist tactics in legislative assemblies. It has particular reference to the U.S. Senate, where the tradition of unlimited debate is very strong. It was not ...

Nestor, Russian chronicler

(Encyclopedia)Nestor nĕsˈtər [key], d. 1115?, Russian chronicler. A monk in a Kiev monastery, he wrote a life of saints Boris and Gleb and of the prior of his monastery St. Feodosi. Until recently the authorship...

Nodier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Nodier, Charles shärl nôdyāˈ [key], 1780–1844, French novelist and poet. From 1824 he was librarian of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris. His salon was the nucleus of the beginning romanti...

Arnstadt

(Encyclopedia)Arnstadt ärnˈshtät [key], city, Thuringia, E Germany, on the Gera River. Known for its glove-manufacturing industries, Arnstadt also has glassworks, wood-finishing work...

Mitchison, Naomi

(Encyclopedia)Mitchison, Naomi, 1897–1999, British writer, b. Scotland, educated at Oxford; daughter of the biologist J. S. Haldane. She wrote many types of novels on a variety of subjects. They include historica...

Murray, Henry A.

(Encyclopedia)Murray, Henry A., 1893–1988, American psychologist, b. New York City. Murray was trained in a variety of disciplines, including psychology, chemistry, and biology. He taught at Harvard (1927–62), ...

McNary, Charles Linza

(Encyclopedia)McNary, Charles Linza, 1874–1944, U.S. senator (1917–44), b. near Salem, Oreg. Admitted (1898) to the bar in Oregon, he became prominent in the Republican party. In the Senate he sponsored farm ai...

magic square

(Encyclopedia)magic square, a square divided into parts with letters or numbers inscribed therein that, whether combined vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, form the same sum or the same word. In ancient times...

Pearson, John

(Encyclopedia)Pearson, John, 1613–86, English prelate and scholar. He was a royalist chaplain (1645) in the civil war, but during Cromwell's regime he lived quietly in London. His Exposition of the Creed (1659), ...

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

(Encyclopedia)Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N.Y.; coeducational; founded and opened 1824 as Rensselaer School; chartered 1826. It was called Rensselaer Institute from 1837 to 1861. The first private te...