Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Robsart, Amy

(Encyclopedia)Robsart, Amy rŏbˈsärt [key], 1532–60, maiden name of the wife of Robert Dudley, later earl of Leicester, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I of England. When Lady Dudley was found dead at the foot of...

Selkirk, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Alexander sĕlˈkərk [key], 1676–1721, Scottish sailor whose adventures suggested to Daniel Defoe the story of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1704, as a sailing master, Selkirk quarreled with ...

Colum, Padraic

(Encyclopedia)Colum, Padraic päˈdrĭk kŏlˈəm [key], 1881–1972, Irish-American author, b. Longford, Ireland. He was active in the Irish literary renaissance and helped to found the Abbey Theatre. His verse in...

Coriolanus

(Encyclopedia)Coriolanus (Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus) kôrˌēəlāˈnəs [key], Roman patrician. He is said to have derived his name from the capture of the Volscian city Corioli. According to legend he was expelle...

Poole, Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Poole, Ernest po͞ol [key], 1880–1950, American writer, b. Chicago, grad. Princeton, 1902. He was a magazine correspondent in Russia, France, and Germany before and during World War I. His best-know...

Anti-Saloon League

(Encyclopedia)Anti-Saloon League, U.S. organization working for prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquors. Founded in 1893 as the Ohio Anti-Saloon League at Oberlin, Ohio, by representatives of temperance societ...

Jemison, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Jemison, Mary, 1743–1833, American frontierswoman. She was born at sea while her parents were en route from Ireland to America. In W Pennsylvania she was captured (1758) by a French and Indian War p...

Guinevere

(Encyclopedia)Guinevere gwĭnˈəvĭrˌ, gwĕnˈ– [key], in Arthurian legend, wife of King Arthur. Her illicit and tragic love for Sir Launcelot, which foreshadowed the downfall of Arthur's kingdom, ends with her...

Coltrane, John

(Encyclopedia)Coltrane, John kōltrānˈ, kōlˈtrān [key], 1926–67, American jazz musician, b. Hamlet, N.C. He began ...

Graham, Katharine Meyer

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Katharine Meyer, 1917–2001, American publisher, b. New York City, grad. Univ. of Chicago (1938). She first worked as a copy girl at the Washington Post, which was owned by her father, Eugene...