Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Grétry, André Ernest Modeste

(Encyclopedia)Grétry, André Ernest Modeste äNdrāˈ ĕrnĕstˈ môdĕstˈ grātrēˈ [key], 1741–1813, French operatic composer. Enormously prolific and successful in his lifetime, he was a master of the 18th-...

Stratford, estate, United States

(Encyclopedia)Stratford, home of the Lee family, overlooking the Potomac River, E Va., SE of Fredericksburg. A national shrine dedicated in 1935, the site was purchased in 1716 by Thomas Lee, who built the mansion ...

Benson, Robert Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Benson, Robert Hugh, 1871–1914, English author and clergyman; 4th son of Archbishop Benson. He was converted to Roman Catholicism in 1903 and ordained the next year. In 1911, as a monsignor, he beca...

Babenberg

(Encyclopedia)Babenberg bäˈbənbĕrk [key], ruling house of Austria (976–1246). It possibly descended from, or succeeded, a powerful Franconian family of the 9th cent. from whose castle the city of Bamberg prob...

Reno

(Encyclopedia)Reno rēˈnō [key], city (1990 pop. 133,850), seat of Washoe co., W Nev., on the Truckee River; inc. 1903. Tourism has been the major industry since gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931. With its...

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...

Colby, William Egan

(Encyclopedia)Colby, William Egan, 1920–96, American public official, b. St. Paul, Minn., grad. Princeton, 1940. During World War II he served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and in 1944 was dropped by ...

Isidore of Seville, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Isidore of Seville, Saint ĭzˈədôrˌ [key], c.560–636, Spanish churchman and encyclopedist, bishop of Seville, Doctor of the Church. Born of a noble Hispano-Roman family from Cartagena, he spent ...

Weinberger, Caspar Willard

(Encyclopedia)Weinberger, Caspar Willard wīnˈbûrgər [key], 1917–2006, U.S. government official, U.S. secretary of defense (1981–87), b. San Francisco, grad. Harvard (1938), Harvard Law School (1941). After ...

Browse by Subject