Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Usk, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Usk, Thomas ŭsk [key], d. 1388, English politician and author. He was under-sheriff of London. While in Newgate Prison he wrote Testament of Love, an allegory in prose describing and justifying the p...

Gross, David Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Gross, David Jonathan, 1941–, American particle physicist, b. Washington, D.C., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1966. Gross was a professor at Princeton from 1969 to 1997, when he joined the fa...

Thomas à Kempis

(Encyclopedia)Thomas à Kempis kĕmˈpĭs [key], b. 1379 or 1380, d. 1471, German monk, traditional author of The Imitation of Christ, b. Kempen, Germany. He was schooled at Deventer, in the Netherlands, the center...

Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of lĕvˈən [key], 1580?–1661, Scottish general. He served in the Swedish army some 30 years, being knighted by Gustavus II and fighting in the Thirty Years War. R...

Dalyell, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Dalyell or Dalzell, Thomas both: dēĕlˈ, dălˈyəl [key], 1599?–1685, Scottish soldier; also called Dalziel of the Binns. He fought for Charles II at the battle of Worcester (1651), was captured,...

Chalkley, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Chalkley, Thomas chôˈklē [key], 1675–1741, Quaker mariner and missionary preacher, b. England. He made his home after 1701 in Philadelphia. He traded chiefly with the West Indies, navigating his ...

Holcroft, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Holcroft, Thomas hōlˈkrôft [key], 1745–1809, English dramatist and novelist. Sometimes credited with having introduced melodrama to the London stage, he is the author of the sentimental play The ...

Lunt, Alfred, and Lynn Fontanne

(Encyclopedia)Lunt, Alfred, 1893–1977, b. Milwaukee, and Lynn Fontanne fŏntănˈ [key], 1887?–1983, b. Essex, England, American acting couple. Lunt made his debut in Boston (1913), toured in vaudeville, and wo...

Saint Thomas, island, Virgin Islands

(Encyclopedia)Saint Thomas, island (2010 pop. 51,634), 32 sq mi (83 sq km), one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, West Indies. Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a campus of the Univ. of the Vi...

Hastings, Thomas, American architect

(Encyclopedia)Hastings, Thomas, 1860–1929, American architect, b. New York City, grad. École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He worked in the office of McKim, Mead, and White, New York City, and in 1886 commenced practic...