Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

340 results found

Piston, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Piston, Walter, 1894–1976, American composer and teacher, b. Rockland, Maine. Piston studied at Harvard and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris; he joined the faculty of Harvard in 1926. He became a Gugge...

Butler, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Walter, 1752?–1781, Loyalist officer in the American Revolution, b. New York State; son of John Butler. He was an officer in his father's Loyalist troop, Butler's Rangers. He was captured (1...

Winchell, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Winchell, Walter, 1897–1972, journalist and broadcaster, b. New York City as Walter Winchel. He performed in vaudeville, and adopted a marquee's misspelling of his surname. After serving two years i...

Walter, Bruno

(Encyclopedia)Walter, Bruno, 1876–1962, German-American conductor, b. Berlin as Bruno Walter Schlesinger. Walter studied at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. After he had conducted in several German cities, Gusta...

Walter, Hubert

(Encyclopedia)Walter, Hubert, d. 1205, English archbishop and statesman. He was clerk to his uncle, Ranulf de Glanvill, and in 1186 he was made dean of York. In 1189 he was appointed bishop of Salisbury, and he acc...

Walter, Lucy

(Encyclopedia)Walter, Lucy, 1630?–1658, mistress (1648–50) of Charles II of England during his exile in Holland and France. She was the mother by him of James Scott, duke of Monmouth, whom the Whigs supported a...

Benjamin, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Benjamin, Walter, 1892–1940, German essayist and critic. He is known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism. In particular, his essays on Charles Baudelaire and Franz Ka...

Ulbricht, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Ulbricht, Walter välˈtər o͝olˈbrĭkht [key], 1893–1973, Communist leader in the German Democratic Republic. A founder of the German Communist party, he fled Germany in 1933 and went to Moscow, ...

Bonatti, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Bonatti, Walter, 1930–2011, Italian mountain climber. He became famous for such feats as the first climb (1951) of Grand Capucin in the Mont Blanc massif and the ascent (1958) of Gasherbrum IV in th...

Bernstein, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Bernstein, Walter, 1919-2021, American screenwriter, b. Brooklyn, NY, Dartmouth College (BA, 1940). After attending high school, Bernstein enrolled at ...

Browse by Subject