Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

438 results found

Hancock, John

(Encyclopedia)Hancock, John, 1737–93, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Braintree, Mass. From an uncle he inherited Boston's leading mercantile firm, and n...

O'Hara, Frank

(Encyclopedia)O'Hara, Frank 1926–66, American poet, b. Baltimore, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1950), Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (M.A., 1951). His poetry is spontaneous, vernacular, witty, personal, and very much of it...

Benson, Ezra Taft

(Encyclopedia)Benson, Ezra Taft, 1899–1994, U.S. secretary of agriculture (1953–61), b. Whitney, Idaho. An extension economist and marketing specialist at the Univ. of Idaho (1930–38) and executive secretary ...

Burns, Ken

(Encyclopedia)Burns, Ken (Kenneth Lauren Burns), 1953–, American documentary filmmaker, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Hampshire College (1975). Acting as producer, director, and cinematographer, Burns typically explor...

Birney, James Gillespie

(Encyclopedia)Birney, James Gillespie bûrˈnē [key], 1792–1857, American abolitionist, b. Danville, Ky. He practiced law at Danville from 1814 to 1818, before he moved to Alabama, where he served one term in th...

Bernanos, Georges

(Encyclopedia)Bernanos, Georges zhôrzh bĕrnänōsˈ [key], 1888–1948, French novelist and polemicist. Profoundly Catholic, Bernanos attacked modern materialism and advocated a moral and ethical order based on t...

Dimitrov, Georgi

(Encyclopedia)Dimitrov, Georgi gĕôrˈgē dĭmēˈtrŏf [key], 1882–1949, Bulgarian Communist leader. A revolutionary from boyhood, he was a leader in the 1923 Communist uprising against Alexander Tsankov. When ...

Chu, Steven

(Encyclopedia)Chu, Steven, 1948–, U.S. physicist and government official, b. St. Louis, Mo., grad. Univ. of Rochester (B.S., A.B. 1970), Univ. of California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 1976). He worked from 1978 at Bell Lab...

hydrofoil

(Encyclopedia)hydrofoil, flat or curved finlike device, attached by struts to the hull of a watercraft, that lifts the moving watercraft above the water's surface. The term is often extended to include the vessel i...

Hauptmann, Gerhart

(Encyclopedia)Hauptmann, Gerhart gĕrˈhärt houptˈmän [key], 1862–1946, German dramatist, novelist, and poet. He showed the influence of the theories of Zola and the plays of Ibsen in his play Before Dawn (188...