Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

294 results found

Capecchi, Mario Renato

(Encyclopedia)Capecchi, Mario Renato, 1937–, American geneticist, b. Verona, Italy, Ph.D. Harvard, 1967. On the faculty at Harvard from 1967 to 1973, Capecchi became a professor at the Univ. of Utah School of Med...

pseudonym

(Encyclopedia)pseudonym so͞oˈdənĭm [key] [Gr.,=false name], name assumed, particularly by writers, to conceal identity. A writer's pseudonym is also referred to as a nom de plume (pen name). Famous examples in ...

Gurdjieff, George Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Gurdjieff, George Ivanovich gûrjēfˈ, –jĕfˈ [key], 1872–1949, Armenian spiritualist and author. After spending years traveling, Gurdjieff settled in Moscow (c.1913). He fled the Russian Revolu...

Maurer, Alfred Henry

(Encyclopedia)Maurer, Alfred Henry môrˈər [key], 1868–1932, American painter, b. New York City. He was apprenticed as a lithographer, taught himself painting, and went to Europe in 1897, studying briefly at th...

Walras, Léon

(Encyclopedia)Walras, Léon, 1834–1910, French economist. After abandoning his studies in mining engineering, he became a freelance journalist, advancing the causes of economic and social reform. He later became ...

Trek, Great

(Encyclopedia)Trek, Great trĕk [key], the journey by Afrikaner farmers (Boers) who left the Cape Colony to escape British domination and eventually founded Natal, Transvaal, and the Orange Free State. Trek is an A...

Hobsbawm, Eric John Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Hobsbawm, Eric John Ernest , 1917–2012, British Marxist historian, b. Alexandria, Egypt. Educated at Cambridge (Ph.D., 1951), he joined the Communist party there in 1936. He served in the British ar...

Joinville, Jean, sire de

(Encyclopedia)Joinville, Jean, sire de zhäN sēr də zhwăNvēlˈ [key], 1224?–1317?, French chronicler, biographer of Louis IX of France (St. Louis). As seneschal (governor) of Champagne, Joinville was a close ...

Nennius

(Encyclopedia)Nennius nĕnˈēəs [key], fl. 796, Welsh writer, to whom is ascribed the Historia Britonum. He lived on the borders of Mercia and probably was a pupil of Elbod, bishop of Bangor. The Historia is a co...

Luke, Gospel according to Saint

(Encyclopedia)Luke, Gospel according to Saint, third book of the New Testament. It was composed in the second half of the 1st cent. Since the 2d cent. it and the Acts of the Apostles have been ascribed to St. Luke;...