Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Maerlant, Jacob van

(Encyclopedia)Maerlant, Jacob van yäˈkōp vän märˈlänt [key], c.1235–c.1300, Flemish poet, earliest important figure of Dutch literature. He wrote lyric poems and chivalric verse romances after the French a...

Kangaroo Island

(Encyclopedia)Kangaroo Island, island, c.1,700 sq mi (4,400 sq km), S Australia, in South Australia at the entrance to Gulf St. Vincent. It is 93 mi (150 km) long and 35 mi (57 km) wide. The chief products are barl...

Chautauqua movement

(Encyclopedia)Chautauqua movement, development in adult education somewhat similar to the lyceum movement. It derived from an institution at Chautauqua, N.Y. There, in 1873, John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller propo...

Roussel, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Roussel, Albert älbĕrˈ ro͞osĕlˈ [key], 1869–1937, French composer, studied with Vincent D'Indy. His early works show the influence of impressionism. With the symphonic poem Pour une fête de p...

Gonsalves, Ralph Everard

(Encyclopedia)Gonsalves, Ralph Everard, 1946–, Vincentian political leader. Gonsalves practised law in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for several years, becoming deputy leader of the Unity Labor party (ULP) in ...

Hittorff, Jacques Ignace

(Encyclopedia)Hittorff, Jacques Ignace zhäk ēnyäsˈ ētôrfˈ [key], 1792–1867, French architect. He became a leading exponent of the classical revival in France, and his chief work is the Neo-Greek Church of ...

Potiphar

(Encyclopedia)Potiphar pŏtˈifər [key], in the Bible, chief official of Pharaoh who bought Joseph and gave him a high position in his house. Later when his wife falsely accused Joseph, Potiphar put Joseph into pr...

Heym, Stefan

(Encyclopedia)Heym, Stefan hīm [key], 1913–2001, German writer, b. Chemnitz as Helmut Flieg. A Jew, he fled the Nazis (1933), moved to Prague, and settled (1935) in the United States, where he attended the Univ...

trench mouth

(Encyclopedia)trench mouth, common term for Vincent's infection, an ulcerative membranous infection of the gums and mouth, by noncontagious infection, associated with a fusiform bacillus and a spirochete. Poor oral...

Wilson, Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Edmund, 1895–1972, American critic and author, b. Red Bank, N.J. grad. Princeton, 1916. He is considered one of the most important American literary and social critics of the 20th cent. From...