Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Plainfield

(Encyclopedia)Plainfield, city (1990 pop. 46,567), Union co., NE N.J.; settled 1684 by Friends, inc. as a city 1869. Formerly a residential city in the New York metropolitan area, it has become the urban center of ...

Simon, Claude Eugène Henri

(Encyclopedia)Simon, Claude Eugène Henri, 1913–2005, French novelist. He was born in Antananarivo, Madagascar, and studied at Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge. He fought in World War II both as a soldier and later i...

Lathrop, George Parsons

(Encyclopedia)Lathrop, George Parsons lāˈthrəp [key], 1851–98, American author, b. near Honolulu; studied in Germany (1867–70). He was the husband of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthor...

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. ...

Ames, Fisher

(Encyclopedia)Ames, Fisher, 1758–1808, American political leader, b. Dedham, Mass.; son of Nathaniel Ames. Admitted to the bar in 1781, he began political pamphleteering and by a speech in the Massachusetts conve...

Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin, 1831–1917, American journalist, author, and philanthropist, b. Hampton Falls, N.H., grad. Harvard, 1855. An active abolitionist, he was a friend and agent of John Brown, ...

Currier & Ives

(Encyclopedia)Currier & Ives, American lithographers and print publishers, who produced highly popular hand-colored prints of contemporary scenes and events in American life. Nathaniel Currier, 1813–88, b. Ro...

Hanson, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Hanson, Howard, 1896–1981, American composer, teacher, and conductor, b. Wahoo, Nebr. In 1921, Hanson won the Prix de Rome, becoming the first composer to enter the American Academy there. From 1924...

Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3d duke of

(Encyclopedia)Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3d duke of, 1735–1811, British statesman. After serving as a secretary of state (1765–66), he became first lord of the treasury in Lord Chatham's administration (1...

Franconia Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Franconia Mountains frăngkōˈnēə [key], range in the White Mts., N N.H., rising to 5,249 ft (1,600 m) at Mt. Lafayette; part of White Mts. National Forest. Franconia Notch, a scenic, narrow pass (...