Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

conceit

(Encyclopedia)conceit, in literature, fanciful or unusual image in which apparently dissimilar things are shown to have a relationship. The Elizabethan poets were fond of Petrarchan conceits, which were conventiona...

Cuala Press

(Encyclopedia)Cuala Press ko͞oˈlä [key], private printing press founded in Dundrum, Ireland, in 1902 by Elizabeth and Lily Yeats, the sisters of William Butler Yeats. Called the Dun Emer Press until 1908, it beg...

Green, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Green, Paul, 1894–1981, American dramatist, b. Lillington, N.C., grad. Univ. of North Carolina, 1921. He is known for his realistic plays depicting the lives of blacks and white tenant farmers. His ...

Riley, James Whitcomb

(Encyclopedia)Riley, James Whitcomb, 1849–1916, American poet, b. Greenfield, Ind., known as the Hoosier poet. He was at various times a traveling actor, a sign painter, and a newspaperman. Under the name “Benj...

Joplin, Janis

(Encyclopedia)Joplin, Janis jŏpˈlĭn [key], 1943–70, American blues-rock singer, b. Port Arthur, Tex. After dropping out of college (1963) and singing folk rock in Texas clubs, she moved (1966) to San Francisco...

Porter, Katherine Anne

(Encyclopedia)Porter, Katherine Anne, 1890–1980, American author, b. Indian Creek, Tex., as Callie Russell Porter. Although she published infrequently, she is regarded as a master of the short story. Her first bo...

Brubeck, Dave

(Encyclopedia)Brubeck, Dave (David Warren Brubeck) bro͞oˈbĕk [key], 1920–2012, American pianist an...

Ailes, Roger Eugene

(Encyclopedia)Ailes, Roger Eugene ālz [key], 1940–2017, American television executive and political adviser, b. Warren, Ohio, grad. Ohio Univ. (B.A., 1962). He worked in local television in the 1960s as a produc...

Ransom, John Crowe

(Encyclopedia)Ransom, John Crowe, 1888–1974, American poet and critic, b. Pulaski, Tenn., grad. Vanderbilt Univ. and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He is considered one of the great stylists of 20th-centu...

Iowa City

(Encyclopedia)Iowa City, city (2020 pop. 74,828), seat of Johnson co., E Iowa, on both sides of the Iowa River; founded 1839 as the capital of Iowa Territory, inc. 18...

Browse by Subject