Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Malory, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Malory, Sir Thomas mălˈərē [key], d. 1471, English author of Morte d'Arthur. It is almost certain that he was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revell, Warwickshire. Knighted in 1442, he served in the ...

Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl

(Encyclopedia)Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl ătˈlē [key], 1883–1967, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he was called to the bar in 1905. His early experience as a social worker in London's East ...

London, Jack

(Encyclopedia)London, Jack (John Griffith London), 1876–1916, American author, b. San Francisco. The illegitimate son of William Chaney, an astrologer, and Flora Wellman, a seamstress and medium, he had a poverty...

Truth, Sojourner

(Encyclopedia)Truth, Sojourner, c.1797–1883, American abolitionist, a freed slave, originally called Isabella, b. Ulster co., N.Y. Convinced that she heard heavenly...

Tolkien, J. R. R.

(Encyclopedia)Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel Tolkien) tälˈkēn, tōlˈ– [key], 1892–1973, British novelist, b. South Africa. A fantasy writer and Oxford don, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit (1937), adapted fro...

Holland, Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3d Baron

(Encyclopedia)Holland, Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3d Baron, 1773–1840, British politician, nephew of Charles James Fox. He was a member of the Whig opposition party from 1797 and served as lord privy seal in the ...

Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe

(Encyclopedia)Curry, Jabez Lamar Monroe jāˈbĕz [key], 1825–1903, American educator, b. Lincoln co., Ga., grad. Univ. of Georgia, 1843. He studied law at Harvard and later became a member of the Alabama legisla...

Creeley, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Creeley, Robert, 1926–2005, American poet, b. Arlington, Mass. He lived in Asia, Europe, and Latin America and taught at various universities in the United States. With Charles Olson, he was a leadi...

Mosby, John Singleton

(Encyclopedia)Mosby, John Singleton môzˈbē [key], 1833–1916, Confederate partisan leader in the American Civil War, b. Edgemont, Va. He was practicing law in Bristol, Va., when the Civil War broke out. Mosby s...

Lynch, David (Keith)

(Encyclopedia)Lynch, David (Keith), 1946–, American film and television writer, producer, and director, b. Missoula, Mont. Trained as a painter, he studied at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C. (1963–...