Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Beit, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Beit, Alfred bīt [key], 1853–1906, South African financier, b. Hamburg. He went to South Africa in 1875, grew rich from the development of diamond mines, and was a colleague and lieutenant of Cecil...

spinel

(Encyclopedia)spinel, magnesium aluminum oxide, MgAl2O4, a mineral crystallizing in the isometric system, usually as octahedrons. It occurs as an accessory mineral in basic igneous rocks, in aluminum-rich metamorph...

Encarnación

(Encyclopedia)Encarnación ĕngkärnäsyōnˈ [key], city, capital of Itapúa dept., SE Paraguay, a port on the ...

Feather

(Encyclopedia)Feather, river, 80 mi (129 km) long, rising in three forks in the Sierra Nevada, uniting N of Oroville, Calif., and flowing S into the Sacramento River, N of Sacramento, Calif. The Feather River basin...

Gretchaninov, Aleksandr Tichonovich

(Encyclopedia)Gretchaninov, Aleksandr Tichonovich əlyĭksänˈdər tēkônôˈvĭch grĕchänēˈnŏf [key], 1864–1956, Russian composer; pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov. Among his works are four symphonies, two operas...

Tayma

(Encyclopedia)Tayma tāˈmä [key], large oasis, SW Saudi Arabia. Cuneiform inscriptions possibly dating from the 6th cent. b.c. have been recovered from Tayma. In ancient Arabic tradition the oasis was noted as a ...

Thoma, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Thoma, Hans häns tōˈmä [key], 1839–1924, German painter and lithographer. He was influenced by Courbet. His later, individual style, modeled on that of old German woodcuts, shows rich coloring a...

Benchley, Robert Charles

(Encyclopedia)Benchley, Robert Charles, 1889–1945, American humorist, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1912. He was drama critic of Life (1920–29) and of the New Yorker (1929–40). Benchley was known for a ...

Staël, Nicholas de

(Encyclopedia)Staël, Nicholas de nēkôläˈ də stäl [key], 1914–55, French painter, b. St. Petersburg, Russia. Reared in Brussels, he traveled extensively before settling in France in 1940. De Staël evolved ...

Mörike, Eduard

(Encyclopedia)Mörike, Eduard āˈdo͞oärt möˈrĭkə [key], 1804–75, German writer and clergyman, a leader of the Swabian school. Over 50 of his rich and varied lyrics, among them “Schlafendes Jesuskind” [...
 

Browse by Subject