Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

444 results found

Gross, David Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Gross, David Jonathan, 1941–, American particle physicist, b. Washington, D.C., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1966. Gross was a professor at Princeton from 1969 to 1997, when he joined the fa...

Smith, Tony

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Tony, 1912–80, American sculptor, b. South Orange, N.J., studied Art Students League, New York City (1933–37), New Bauhaus, Chicago (1937–38). Trained as a painter and architect and for a...

Spillane, Mickey

(Encyclopedia)Spillane, Mickey (Frank Morrison Spillane), 1918–2006, American mystery writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. After contributing stories to comic books and pulp magazines, Spillane wrote his first novel, I, the...

Bogan, Louise

(Encyclopedia)Bogan, Louise bōˈgən [key], 1897–1970, American poet and critic, b. Livermore, Maine. She spent much of her life in New York City and was for many years poetry editor for the New Yorker. Her vers...

Monroe, Bill

(Encyclopedia)Monroe, Bill (William Smith Monroe), 1911–96, country singer, musician, and songwriter, often called the “father of bluegrass,” b. Rosine, Ky. A m...

Ailey, Alvin, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Ailey, Alvin, Jr. āˈlē [key], 1931–89, American modern dancer and choreographer, b. Rogers, Tex. Ailey studied in Los Angeles with Lester Horton, whose strong, dramatic style and views about mult...

diary

(Encyclopedia)diary [Lat.,=day], a daily record of events and observations. As distinguished from memoir (an account of events placed in perspective by the author long after they have occurred), the diary derives i...

St.-John's-wort

(Encyclopedia)St.-John's-wort, any species of the large and widespread herbaceous or shrubby genus Hypericum of the family Hypericaceae (St.-John's-wort family), usually found in moist, open places and often having...

Ingersoll, Robert Green

(Encyclopedia)Ingersoll, Robert Green, 1833–99, American orator and lawyer, b. Dresden, N.Y. The son of a Congregational minister who eventually settled in Illinois, Ingersoll was admitted (1854) to the bar and b...

Scully, Vincent Joseph, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Scully, Vincent Joseph, Jr., 1920–2018, American architectural historian, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Yale (B.A., 1940; Ph.D., 1949). As a professor of art history at Yale (1947–91, though he taugh...