Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Brown, Charles Brockden

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Charles Brockden, 1771–1810, American novelist and editor, b. Philadelphia, considered the first professional American novelist. After the publication of Alcuin: A Dialogue (1798), he wrote s...

Renault, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Renault, Mary, pseud. of Mary Challens, 1905–83, English novelist, b. London. After receiving her nursing degree in 1936, she emigrated to South Africa. She was best-known for her historical novels ...

Crane, Hart

(Encyclopedia)Crane, Hart (Harold Hart Crane), 1899–1932, American poet, b. Garrettsville, Ohio. He published only two volumes of poetry during his lifetime, but those works established Crane as one of the most o...

Coltrane, John

(Encyclopedia)Coltrane, John kōltrānˈ, kōlˈtrān [key], 1926–67, American jazz musician, b. Hamlet, N.C. He began ...

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

(Encyclopedia)Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815–1902, American reformer, a leader of the woman-suffrage movement, b. Johnstown, N.Y. She was educated at the Troy Female Seminary (now Emma Willard School) in Troy, N.Y...

Cole, Nat “King”

(Encyclopedia)Cole, Nat “King,” 1919–65, American musician and composer, b. Montgomery, Ala., as Nathaniel Adams Coles. A jazz pianist, he played Los Angeles nightclubs and in 1938 formed the King Cole Trio. ...

Clark, Alvan

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Alvan, 1804–87, American astronomer and maker of astronomical lenses, b. Ashfield, Mass. In 1846 the firm of Alvan Clark & Sons was established at Cambridgeport, Mass.; it became famous a...

Hirsch, Emil Gustav

(Encyclopedia)Hirsch, Emil Gustav hûrsh [key], 1851–1923, American rabbi, b. Luxembourg. He was rabbi in Baltimore and Louisville, Ky., but is best known for his work as rabbi of the Sinai congregation of Chicag...

Hewitt, Peter Cooper

(Encyclopedia)Hewitt, Peter Cooper hyo͞oˈĭt [key], 1861–1921, American scientist and inventor, b. New York City; son of Abram S. Hewitt and grandson of Peter Cooper. He invented a mercury-vapor lamp and a merc...

Angell, James Rowland

(Encyclopedia)Angell, James Rowland, 1869–1949, American educator and psychologist, b. Burlington, Vt., grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A. 1890; M.A. 1891), M.A. Harvard, 1892; son of James B. Angell. After study abro...