Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Machar, Josef Svatopluk

(Encyclopedia)Machar, Josef Svatopluk yôˈzĕf sväˈtôplo͝ok mäˈkhär [key], 1854–1942, Czech poet and essayist. A leader of the realist movement in Czech poetry and a master of colloquial Czech, Machar was...

Bahr el Jebel

(Encyclopedia)Bahr el Jebel bäˈhər ĕl jĕbˈĕl [key], river, 594 mi (956 km) long, section of the White Nile, central South Sudan, Africa. The name is usually used for the White Nile between Nimule, where it e...

Wheatley, Phillis

(Encyclopedia)Wheatley, Phillis, 1753?–1784, American poet, considered the first important black writer in the United States. Brought from Africa in 1761, she became a house slave for the Boston merchant John Whe...

Yacine, Kateb

(Encyclopedia)Yacine, Kateb käˈtāb yäˈsēn [key], 1929–89, Algerian author. In 1945 he moved to Paris and afterward traveled in Europe and Asia. His most famous work is the novel Nedjma (1957, tr. 1961, new ...

Bacon, Peggy

(Encyclopedia)Bacon, Peggy, 1895–1987, American illustrator, caricaturist, and etcher, b. Ridgefield, Conn. She illustrated more than 60 books including works by George Ade, Carl Sandburg, and Louis Untermeyer, a...

polymer

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Addition polymerization: Two ethylene molecules, C2H4, combine to form two links in the polyethylene chain molecule (C2H4)n. B. Condensation polymerization: Two glycine molecules, NH2CH2COOH...

states of matter

(Encyclopedia)states of matter, forms of matter differing in several properties because of differences in the motions and forces of the molecules (or atoms, ions, or elementary particles) of which they are composed...

Cockburn, Sir Alexander James Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Cockburn, Sir Alexander James Edmund, 1802–80, British jurist. He was called to the bar in 1829, and a volume of reports on election cases (1832) brought him into national prominence as a trial lawy...

Jay, William

(Encyclopedia)Jay, William, 1789–1858, American jurist and reformer, b. New York City; son of John Jay. For most of the period from 1818 to 1843 he served as judge of the county court of Westchester co., N.Y. An ...

Ossietzky, Carl von

(Encyclopedia)Ossietzky, Carl von fən ôsyĕtˈskē [key], 1889–1938, German pacifist. A leader of the peace movement in Germany after World War I, he was editor of the antimilitarist weekly Weltbühne from 1927...