Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Baraka, Amiri

(Encyclopedia)Baraka, Amiri amērē bəräˈkə [key], 1934–2014, American poet, playwright, and political activist, b. Newark, N.J., as Everett LeRoy Jones, studied at Rutgers Univ., Howard Univ. In college he a...

Tito, Josip Broz

(Encyclopedia)Tito, Josip Broz yôˈsĭp brôz tēˈtō [key], 1892–1980, Yugoslav Communist leader, marshal of Yugoslavia. He was originally Josip Broz. As premier and minister of defense from 1945, Marshal T...

Cory, William Johnson

(Encyclopedia)Cory, William Johnson, 1823–92, English poet and classicist. He was assistant master at Eton from 1845 to 1872. His verse, of which Ionica (1858) is the best known, consists primarily of imitations ...

Smith, Henry John Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Henry John Stephen, 1826–83, British mathematician. He was a lecturer in mathematics (1850–73) and, from 1860 to 1883, Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford. He is especially noted for h...

Dunbar, William, Scottish poet

(Encyclopedia)Dunbar, William, c.1460–c.1520, Scottish poet. After attending the Univ. of St. Andrews he was attached for some time to the Franciscans, probably as a novice. By 1491 he seems to have been connecte...

Comenius, John Amos

(Encyclopedia)Comenius, John Amos kōmēˈnēəs [key], Czech Jan Amos Komenský, 1592–1670, Moravian churchman and educator, last bishop of the Moravian Church. Comenius advocated relating education to everyday ...

Coffin, Charles Albert

(Encyclopedia)Coffin, Charles Albert, 1844–1926, American businessman, b. Fairfield, Maine. After working in his uncle's shoe business in Lynn, Mass., he established his own shoe factory, Coffin and Clough. In 18...

Channing, William Ellery

(Encyclopedia)Channing, William Ellery, 1780–1842, American Unitarian minister and author, b. Newport, R.I. At 23 he was ordained minister of the Federal St. Congregational Church in Boston, where he served until...

Greek Anthology

(Encyclopedia)Greek Anthology, a collection of short epigrammatic poems representing Greek literature from the 7th cent. b.c. to the 10th cent. a.d. It contains more than 6,000 poems on a variety of subjects by som...

Lie, Trygve Halvdan

(Encyclopedia)Lie, Trygve Halvdan trügˈvə hälvˈdän lē [key], 1896–1968, Norwegian statesman, first secretary-general of the United Nations. A lawyer and Labor party leader, he was Norwegian minister of jus...

Browse by Subject