Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

New Red Sandstone

(Encyclopedia)New Red Sandstone, name for the thick red layer of the Triassic formation in Great Britain (see Triassic period). It is many thousands of feet thick and is composed chiefly of red sandstones, clays, a...

La Calprenède, Gautier de Costes, sieur de

(Encyclopedia)La Calprenède, Gautier de Costes, sieur de gōtyāˈ də kôst syör də lä kälprənĕdˈ [key], 1609?–1663, French novelist and dramatist. His best-known works were Cassandre (10 vol., 1642) and...

Lee, Nathaniel

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Nathaniel, 1653–92, English dramatist. After failing as an actor, he turned to writing plays. Lee confined himself entirely to tragedy, turning often to the classical historians for the backgro...

Thomson, Peter William

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Peter William, 1929–2018, Australian golfer. A leading player in European tournaments at a time when Australians had not yet emerged as top golfers, Thomson had a compact swing and efficien...

Richards, Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Richards, Gordon, 1904–86, British jockey. He began as a stable apprentice in 1919. From the mid-1920s until his retirement in 1954, he was the championship jockey of England 26 times. In 1943 he be...

Roebuck, John

(Encyclopedia)Roebuck, John, 1718–94, English physician, chemist, and inventor. He acted as a chemical consultant to local industries in Birmingham and invented the lead chamber process of manufacturing sulfuric ...

Clare, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Clare or Clara, Saint, 1193?–1253, Italian nun of Assisi, devoted from her youth to St. Francis, to whom she took a vow of poverty. She led a life of great austerity. She organized her companions in...

Gaynor, William Jay

(Encyclopedia)Gaynor, William Jay, 1849–1913, U.S. political leader, mayor of New York City, b. Oneida co., N.Y. He rose to prominence as a civic reformer in Brooklyn and, as justice of the New York supreme court...

Delisle, Guillaume

(Encyclopedia)Delisle, Guillaume gēyōmˈ dəlēlˈ [key], 1675–1726, French geographer and cartographer. His most important work is a world map (1700), as accurate as the data available at that time permitted a...

Feyjóo y Montenegro, Benito Gerónimo

(Encyclopedia)Feyjóo y Montenegro, Benito Gerónimo bānēˈtō hārōˈnēmō fāēhōˈō ē mōntānāˈgrō [key], 1676–1764, Spanish Benedictine scholar and critic, abbot at Oviedo, Asturias. Feyjóo led in...