Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kirby, William

(Encyclopedia)Kirby, William, 1817–1906, Canadian author, b. England. He was a journalist and civil servant. Besides volumes of verse and tales, he wrote The Golden Dog (1877), also published as Le Chien d'or (18...

Hooper, William

(Encyclopedia)Hooper, William, 1742–90, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Boston. He became a lawyer and moved (1764) to Wilmington, N.C. Hooper served on ...

William of Orange

(Encyclopedia)William of Orange: see William the Silent; William II, prince of Orange; William III, king of England. ...

Frederick William IV

(Encyclopedia)Frederick William IV, 1795–1861, king of Prussia (1840–61), son and successor of Frederick William III. A romanticist and a mystic, he conceived vague schemes of reform based on a revival of the m...

Shenstone, William

(Encyclopedia)Shenstone, William, 1714–63, English poet and landscape gardener. The Schoolmistress (1742), his best-known poem, was written in imitation of Spenser. His home, “Leasowes,” in Shropshire, was a ...

Ellery, William

(Encyclopedia)Ellery, William, 1727–1820, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Newport, R.I. While a member of the Continental Congress (1776–81, 1783–85)...

Warner, William

(Encyclopedia)Warner, William, 1558?–1609, English poet. A lawyer educated at Oxford, he wrote Pan his Syrinx (1584), translated Plautus's Menaechmi (1595), and gained a reputation with Albion's England, a long h...

Zorach, William

(Encyclopedia)Zorach, William zŏrˈäk [key], 1887–1966, American sculptor, b. Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States when he was four and settled near Cleveland. After studying at the Cleveland Sc...

Wirt, William

(Encyclopedia)Wirt, William wûrt [key], 1772–1834, U.S. Attorney General and author, b. Bladensburg, Md. He had little formal schooling but was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1792. His first book was an anonymo...

Langland, William

(Encyclopedia)Langland, William, c.1332–c.1400, putative author of Piers Plowman. He was born probably at Ledbury near the Welsh marshes and may have gone to school at Great Malvern Priory. Although he took minor...