Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kelley, Edgar Stillman

(Encyclopedia)Kelley, Edgar Stillman, 1857–1944, American composer and critic, b. Sparta, Wis., studied in Chicago and at the Stuttgart Conservatory. He taught (1901–2) at Yale, replacing Horatio Parker, and af...

Simpson, O. J.

(Encyclopedia)Simpson, O. J. (Orenthal James Simpson), 1947–, American football player, b. San Francisco. As a running back for the Univ. of Southern California, he won the Heisman Trophy as the best college play...

Adams, Ansel

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Ansel, 1902–84, American photographer, b. San Francisco. He began taking photographs in the High Sierra and Yosemite Valley, with which his name is permanently associated, becoming profession...

Camino Real, El

(Encyclopedia)Camino Real, El [Span.,=The Royal Road]. There are Camino Reals in most former Spanish possessions, including four in former Spanish territory in the United States. Probably the best-known American tr...

Pittsburg

(Encyclopedia)Pittsburg pĭtsˈbərg [key]. 1 Industrial city (1990 pop. 47,564), Contra Costa co., W Calif., on the edge of the San Francisco Bay area, at the junction of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers;...

Sacramento, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Sacramento, longest river of Calif., c.380 mi (610 km) long, rising near Mt. Shasta, N Calif., and flowing generally SW to Suisun Bay, an arm of San Francisco Bay, where it forms a large delta with th...

Giannini, A. P.

(Encyclopedia)Giannini, A. P. (Amadeo Peter Giannini) ämädĕˈō, jänēˈnē [key], 1870–1949, American banker and financier, b. San Jose, Calif. The son of Italian immigrants, he joined his stepfather in the ...

Erlanger, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Erlanger, Joseph ûrˈlăng-ər [key], 1874–1965, American scientist, b. San Francisco, grad. Univ. of California (B.S., 1895), M.D. Johns Hopkins, 1899. For his contributions to physiology, especia...

Horne, Marilyn

(Encyclopedia)Horne, Marilyn, 1934–, American mezzo-soprano, b. Bradford, Pa. She established herself with her characterization of Marie in Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the San Francisco Opera in 1960. In 1970 she mad...

Duncan, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Duncan, Robert, 1919–88, American poet, b. Oakland, Calif. He was a leading poet of the San Francisco renaissance during the late 1940s. His lyric style contains private allusions, gaps in syntax, a...