Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ionesco, Eugène

(Encyclopedia)Ionesco, Eugène özhĕnˈ yŏnĕsˈkō [key], 1912–94, French playwright, b. Romania. Settling in France in 1938, he contributed to Cahiers du Sud and began writing avant-garde plays. His works str...

Bourne, Randolph Silliman

(Encyclopedia)Bourne, Randolph Silliman bôrn [key], 1886–1918, American author and social critic, b. Bloomfield, N.J., grad. Columbia Univ., 1912. His critical examination of the American way of life established...

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...

Renan, Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Renan, Ernest ĕrnĕstˈ rənäNˈ [key], 1823–92, French historian and critic. He began training for the priesthood but renounced it in 1845. His first trip to Italy (1849) influenced his interest ...

Boulogne-Billancourt

(Encyclopedia)Boulogne-Billancourt bo͞olôˈnyə-bēyäNko͞orˈ [key], city, Hauts-de-Seine dept., N central France, a suburb SW ...

's Hertogenbosch

(Encyclopedia)'s Hertogenbosch sĕrˌtōkhənbôsˈ [key], Fr. Bois-le-Duc, city (1994 pop. 95,448), capital of North Brabant prov., S central Netherlands, at the confluence of the Dommel and Aa rivers. It is an in...

Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinien

(Encyclopedia)Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinien sävēnyăNˈ sēränōˈ də bĕrzhəräkˈ [key], 1619–55, French novelist. Satirizing the customs and beliefs of his time, he wrote two fantastic romances about visit...

Ames, Fisher

(Encyclopedia)Ames, Fisher, 1758–1808, American political leader, b. Dedham, Mass.; son of Nathaniel Ames. Admitted to the bar in 1781, he began political pamphleteering and by a speech in the Massachusetts conve...

Rabelais, François

(Encyclopedia)Rabelais, François răbˈəlā, Fr. fräNswäˈ räblāˈ [key], c.1490–1553, French writer and physician, one of the great comic geniuses in world literature. His father, a lawyer, owned several e...

Dib, Mohammed

(Encyclopedia)Dib, Mohammed môämĕdˈ dēb [key], 1920–2003, Algerian novelist and poet, b. Tlemcen. From 1959 on he lived most of his life in France. In a vigorous, forthright style, he wrote in French about l...