Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Forster, E. M.

(Encyclopedia)Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan Forster), 1879–1970, English author, one of the most important British novelists of the 20th cent. After graduating from Cambridge, Forster lived in Italy and Greece. D...

Sangay

(Encyclopedia)Sangay, active volcano, 17,343 ft (5,286 m) high, S central Ecuador. A symmetrical, glacier-capped, cone-shaped stratovolcano at the edge of the Amazon rainforest, it is the most active volcano in Ecu...

Canfield, Richard Albert

(Encyclopedia)Canfield, Richard Albert, 1855–1914, American gambler, b. New Bedford, Mass. A well-known gambling operator in Providence, R.I., Canfield went in the 1880s to New York, where his gambling establishm...

Debs, Eugene Victor

(Encyclopedia)Debs, Eugene Victor, 1855–1926, American Socialist leader, b. Terre Haute, Ind. Leaving high school to work in the railroad shops in Terre Haute, he became a railroad fireman (1871) and organized (1...

Euripides

(Encyclopedia)Euripides yo͝orĭpˈĭdēz [key], 480 or 485–406 b.c., Greek tragic dramatist, ranking with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Born in Attica, he lived in Athens most of his life, though he spent much time o...

electronic game

(Encyclopedia)electronic game, device or computer program that provides entertainment by challenging a person's eye-hand coordination or mental abilities. Made possible by the development of the microprocessor, ele...

Kandinsky, Wassily

(Encyclopedia)Kandinsky, Wassily or Vasily kăndĭnˈskē, Rus. vəsēˈlyē kəndyēnˈskē [key], 1866–1944, Russian abstract painter and theorist. Usually regarded as the originator of abstract art, Kandinsky ...

Petrarch

(Encyclopedia)Petrarch fränchĕsˈkō pāträrˈkä [key], 1304–74, Italian poet and humanist, one of the great figures of Italian literature. He spent his youth in Tuscany and Avignon and at Bologna. He returne...

Lamont, Thomas William

(Encyclopedia)Lamont, Thomas William ləmŏntˈ [key], 1870–1948, American banker, b. Claverack, N.Y., grad. Harvard, 1892. Lamont entered (1903) the banking business in New York City and by 1911 was a partner of...

Punch and Judy

(Encyclopedia)Punch and Judy, famous English puppet play, very popular with children and given widely by strolling puppet players, especially during the Christmas season. It came to England in the 17th cent. by way...