Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

410 results found

Anderson, Maxwell

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Maxwell, 1888–1959, American dramatist, b. Atlantic, Pa., grad. Univ. of North Dakota, 1911. His plays, many of which are written in verse, usually concern social and moral problems. Ander...

Gower, John

(Encyclopedia)Gower, John gouˈər, gôr [key], 1330?–1408, English poet. He was the best-known contemporary and friend of Chaucer, who addressed him as “Moral Gower,” at the end of Troilus and Criseyde. Appa...

Gissing, George

(Encyclopedia)Gissing, George gĭsˈĭng [key], 1857–1903, English novelist. His promising future as a scholar was curtailed by his expulsion from Owens College (later the Univ. of Manchester) because of his asso...

Crumb, George Henry

(Encyclopedia)Crumb, George Henry, 1929–, American composer, b. Charleston, W.Va., grad. Mason College of Music, Charleston (B.A. 1950); Univ. of Illinois (M.A. 1953); Univ. of Michigan (D.M.A. 1959). In his comp...

Blitzstein, Marc

(Encyclopedia)Blitzstein, Marc (Marcus Samuel Blitzstein), 1905–64, American composer, pianist, and librettist, b. Philadelphia. After attending the Univ. of Pennsylvania and the Curtis Institute of Music, he stu...

benzene

(Encyclopedia)benzene bĕnˈzēn, bĕnzēnˈ [key], colorless, flammable, toxic liquid with a pleasant aromatic odor. It boils at 80.1℃ and solidifies at 5.5℃. Benzene is a hydrocarbon, with formula C6H6. The s...

elementary particles

(Encyclopedia)CE5 elementary particles, the most basic physical constituents of the universe. The first subatomic particle to be discovered was the electron, identified in 1897 by J. J. Thomson. After the...

Middleton, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Middleton, Thomas, 1580–1627, English dramatist, b. London, grad. Queen's College, Oxford, 1598. His early plays were chiefly written in collaboration with Dekker, Drayton, and others. Between 1604 ...

N. Scott Momaday

(Encyclopedia)N. Scott Momaday (Navarre Scott Momaday), 1934–2024, American writer whose works are reflective of his Kiowa culture, b. Lawton, Okla., B.A. Univ. of ...

Lilburne, John

(Encyclopedia)Lilburne, John, 1614?–1657, English political leader and pamphleteer of the Levelers. He was tried before the court of the Star Chamber as early as 1638 for printing and distributing antiepiscopal w...