Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Burton, Ernest De Witt

(Encyclopedia)Burton, Ernest De Witt, 1856–1925, American biblical scholar, b. Granville, Ohio. From 1882 to 1923 he served as professor of New Testament literature and interpretation at the Univ. of Chicago, of ...

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

(Encyclopedia)African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Methodist denomination. It was founded in 1796 by black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City and was organized as a national body in 1821...

Blackmore, Richard Doddridge

(Encyclopedia)Blackmore, Richard Doddridge, 1825–1900, English novelist. Although trained as a lawyer and called to the bar, he abandoned his legal career because of ill health. His reputation rests chiefly on hi...

Webb, Mary (Meredith)

(Encyclopedia)Webb, Mary (Meredith), 1881–1927, English novelist. Her native Shropshire is the scene of all her novels, which are somber, passionate, and infused with an intense feeling for the countryside. Altho...

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim

(Encyclopedia)Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim gôtˈhôlt āˈfräĭm [key], 1729–81, German philosopher, dramatist, and critic, one of the most influential figures of the Enlightenment. He was connected with the theat...

MacLeish, Archibald

(Encyclopedia)MacLeish, Archibald məklēshˈ [key], 1892–1982, American poet and public official, b. Glencoe, Ill., grad. Yale, 1915, LL.B Harvard, 1919. He practiced law for only three years and during the 1920...

Kootenai, indigenous group of North America

(Encyclopedia)Kootenai ko͞otˈənāˌ [key], group of Native North Americans who in the 18th cent. occupied the so-called Kootenai country (i.e., N Montana, N Idaho, and SE British Columbia). Their language is tho...

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth

(Encyclopedia)Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823–1911, American author, b. Cambridge, Mass. A Unitarian minister, he was a leader in the abolitionist movement and was a member of a group that backed John Brown's a...

Grimké, Angelina Emily

(Encyclopedia)Grimké, Angelina Emily grĭmˈkē [key], 1805–79, American abolitionist and advocate of women's rights, b. Charleston, S.C. Converted to the Quaker faith by her elder sister Sarah Moore Grimké, sh...

Golding, William

(Encyclopedia)Golding, William (Sir William Gerald Golding), 1911–93, English novelist, grad. Oxford (B.A. 1934). Praised for his highly imaginative and original writings, Golding was basically concerned with the...