Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

211 results found

Fry, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Fry, Christopher, 1907–2005, English dramatist, b. Bristol as Christopher Fry Harris. Like his friend and mentor, T. S. Eliot, he was one of the few 20th-century dramatists to write successfully in ...

Gadsden, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Gadsden, Christopher gădzˈdən [key], 1724–1805, American Revolutionary leader, b. Charleston, S.C., educated in England. He returned to Charleston (1746) and became a wealthy merchant. At the Sta...

Isherwood, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Isherwood, Christopher ishˈərwo͝od [key], 1904–86, British-American author. After the appearance of his first novel, All the Conspirators (1928), Isherwood went to Germany. The four years he spen...

Dresser, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Dresser, Christopher, 1834–1904, British designer, pioneer of modern industrial design, b. Scotland, He moved (1847) to London, where he studied (1847–54) at the Government School of Design. He be...

Columbus, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Columbus, Christopher, Ital. Cristoforo Colombo krēstōˈbäl kōlōnˈ [key], 1451–1506, European explorer, b. Genoa, Italy. Columbus was not the first European mariner to sail to the New World�...

Christopher, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Christopher, Saint krĭsˈtəfər [key] [Gr.,=Christ bearer], 3d cent.?, martyr of Asia Minor. His characteristic legend is that one day when he was carrying a little child over a river, he felt the c...

Sauer, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Sauer, Christopher: see Sower, Christopher. ...

Polhem, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Polhem, Christopher po͞olˈhĕm [key], 1661–1751, Swedish inventor and industrialist. After studying engineering techniques used in Germany, the Netherlands, France, and England, Polhem set up a me...

Plummer, Christopher

(Encyclopedia) Plummer, Christopher (Arthur Christopher Orme), 1929-2021, Canadian-American actor, b. Toronto, Canada. Raised by his mother, Plummer first aspire...

Newport, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Newport, Christopher, 1565?–1617, English mariner, commander of early voyages to Virginia. He commanded a privateering expedition to the West Indies (1592) that returned to England with the Spanish ...