Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bunyan, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Bunyan, Paul, legendary American lumberjack. He was the hero of a series of “tall tales” popular through the timber country from Michigan westward. Bunyan was known for his fantastic strength and ...

Crane, Hart

(Encyclopedia)Crane, Hart (Harold Hart Crane), 1899–1932, American poet, b. Garrettsville, Ohio. He published only two volumes of poetry during his lifetime, but those works established Crane as one of the most o...

Jaspers, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Jaspers, Karl kärl yäsˈpərs [key], 1883–1969, German philosopher and psychopathologist, b. Oldenburg. After receiving his medical degree (1909) he became (1914) lecturer in psychology and in 192...

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...

Marvell, Andrew

(Encyclopedia)Marvell, Andrew märˈvəl [key], 1621–78, one of the English metaphysical poets. Educated at Cambridge, he worked as a clerk, traveled abroad, and returned to serve as tutor to Lord Fairfax's daugh...

De Quincey, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)De Quincey, Thomas də kwĭnˈsē [key], 1785–1859, English essayist. In 1802 he ran away from school and tramped about the country, eventually settling in London. His family soon found him and ente...

Davisson, Clinton Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Davisson, Clinton Joseph dāˈvĭsən [key], 1881–1958, American physicist, b. Bloomington, Ill. He joined the engineering department of the Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1917. Davisson worked on t...

Marsh, Reginald

(Encyclopedia)Marsh, Reginald, 1898–1954, American painter and illustrator, b. Paris. Both his parents were artists. After their return to the United States, he studied at Yale (B.A., 1920). He worked as an illus...

Wheatley, Phillis

(Encyclopedia)Wheatley, Phillis, 1753?–1784, American poet, considered the first important black writer in the United States. Brought from Africa in 1761, she became a house slave for the Boston merchant John Whe...

Addams, Charles Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Addams, Charles Samuel, 1912–88, American cartoonist, b. Westfield, N.J. Beginning in 1932, Addams's work appeared regularly in the New Yorker, to which he eventually contributed more than 1,300 car...

Browse by Subject