Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Carleton, Will

(Encyclopedia)Carleton, Will, 1845–1912, American poet, b. Hudson, Mich. He is best known for his sentimental poems of rural life, the most famous being “Over the Hill to the Poorhouse.” Among his works are F...

Nye, Edgar Wilson

(Encyclopedia)Nye, Edgar Wilson nī [key], known as Bill Nye, 1850–96, American humorist and journalist, b. Shirley Mills, Maine. He lived in Wisconsin from 1852 to 1876, when he went to Wyoming. There he was adm...

McCloskey, Robert

(Encyclopedia)McCloskey, Robert (John Robert McCloskey) məklŏˈskē [key], 1914–2003, American writer and illustrator of children's books, b. Hamilton, Ohio. He studied at the Vesper George Art School, Boston, ...

Mudd, Samuel Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Mudd, Samuel Alexander, 1833–83, Maryland physician and Confederate sympathizer who on April 15, 1865, set the broken left leg of Lincoln's fleeing assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Mudd was accused of a...

Red Jacket

(Encyclopedia)Red Jacket, c.1758–1830, chief of the Seneca, b. probably Seneca co., N.Y. His Native American name was Otetiani, changed to Sagoyewatha when he became a chief. His English name came from the Britis...

Timothy , epistles in the New Testament

(Encyclopedia)Timothy, two letters of the New Testament. With Titus they comprise the Pastoral Epistles, in which St. Paul addresses his coworkers as the guardians and transmitters of his teaching. Modern scholars ...

Reuter, Fritz

(Encyclopedia)Reuter, Fritz (Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter) , hīnˈrĭkh lo͞otˈvĭkh krĭsˈtyän frēˈdrĭkh [key], 1810–74, German writer. His tales of Mecklenburg life are among the best of Ge...

George, Saint

(Encyclopedia)George, Saint, 4th cent.?, perhaps a soldier in the imperial army who died for the faith in Asia Minor. His life is cloaked in legends; Gibbon's identification of him with George of Cappadocia is fals...

Amadi, Elechi

(Encyclopedia)Amadi, Elechi, 1934–2016, Nigerian novelist, one of the first generation of African novelists who wrote in English; grad. University College, Ibadan. An Ikwerre, he is best known for the novel The C...

Quiroga, Horacio

(Encyclopedia)Quiroga, Horacio ôräˈsyō kērōˈgä [key], 1878–1937, Uruguayan short-story writer. Quiroga is considered a master of the short story. His work was deeply influenced by Kipling, Poe, Chekhov, a...