Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

mandamus

(Encyclopedia)mandamus măndāˈməs [key] [Lat.,=we order], in law, writ directing the performance of ministerial acts. A ministerial act is one that a person or body is obliged by law to perform under given circu...

Mansfield, Katherine

(Encyclopedia)Mansfield, Katherine, 1888–1923, British author, b. New Zealand, regarded as one of the masters of the short story. Her original name was Kathleen Beauchamp. A talented cellist, she did not turn to ...

Kornilov, Lavr Georgyevich

(Encyclopedia)Kornilov, Lavr Georgyevich läˈvər gēyôrˈgyĭvĭch kərnyēˈləf [key], 1870–1918, Russian general, anti-Bolshevik commander during the civil war (1918–20). He fought in the Russo-Japanese W...

Kipling, Rudyard

(Encyclopedia)Kipling, Rudyard, 1865–1936, English author, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Educated in England, Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked as an editor on a Lahore paper. His early poems were col...

Knights of Labor

(Encyclopedia)Knights of Labor, American labor organization, started by Philadelphia tailors in 1869, led by Uriah S. Stephens. It became a body of national scope and importance in 1878 and grew more rapidly after ...

Holmes, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Holmes, William Henry, 1846–1933, American geologist, anthropologist, and museum director, b. Harrison co., Ohio. He was internationally recognized for his work in museum science. In 1872 he became ...

Grieg, Edvard Hagerup

(Encyclopedia)Grieg, Edvard Hagerup ĕdˈvär häˈgəro͞op grēg [key], 1843–1907, Norwegian composer. Grieg developed a strongly nationalistic style which made him known as “the Voice of Norway.” He receiv...

Golding, William

(Encyclopedia)Golding, William (Sir William Gerald Golding), 1911–93, English novelist, grad. Oxford (B.A. 1934). Praised for his highly imaginative and original writings, Golding was basically concerned with the...

Gide, André

(Encyclopedia)Gide, André äNdrāˈ zhēd [key], 1869–1951, French writer. He established a reputation as an unconventional novelist with The Immoralist (1902, tr. 1930), a partly autobiographical work in which ...

German East Africa

(Encyclopedia)German East Africa, former German colony, c.370,000 sq mi (958,300 sq km), E Africa. Dar es Salaam was the capital. German influence emerged in the area in 1884 when Carl Peters, the German explorer, ...