Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hicks, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Hicks, Edward, 1780–1849, American painter and preacher, b. Bucks co., Pa. A member of the Society of Friends, he became a noted back-country preacher in the conservative group of Quakers associated...

impressionism, in music

(Encyclopedia)impressionism, in music, a French movement in the late 19th and early 20th cent. It was begun by Debussy in reaction to the dramatic and dynamic emotionalism of romantic music, especially that of Wagn...

Marsh, Othniel Charles

(Encyclopedia)Marsh, Othniel Charles, 1831–99, American paleontologist, b. Lockport, N.Y., grad. Yale, 1860. He studied abroad, and from 1866 served at Yale as the first professor of paleontology and as curator o...

MacDiarmid, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)MacDiarmid, Hugh məkdûrˈmĭd, –mĭt [key], pseud. of Christopher Murray Grieve, 1892–1978, Scottish poet and critic, b. Langholm, Dumfrieshire. Passionately devoted to Communism and to Scottish...

Merrill, Charles Edward

(Encyclopedia)Merrill, Charles Edward, 1885–1956, American stockbroker and investment banker, founder of Merrill Lynch & Co., b. Green Cove Springs, Fla. Forced by financial hardship to leave college, he arri...

Empson, William

(Encyclopedia)Empson, William, 1906–84, English critic and poet. His Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), a study of the meanings of poetry, is a classic of modern literary criticism. It was followed by Some Versions...

Dix, Dorothea Lynde

(Encyclopedia)Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802–87, American social reformer, pioneer in the movement for humane treatment of the insane, b. Hampden, Maine. For many years she ran a school in Boston. In 1841 she visited ...

Benét, Stephen Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Benét, Stephen Vincent bĕnāˈ [key], 1898–1943, American poet and author, b. Bethlehem, Pa., grad. Yale, 1919; brother of William Rose Benét. After graduating from college, Benét published seve...

Tolkien, J. R. R.

(Encyclopedia)Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel Tolkien) tälˈkēn, tōlˈ– [key], 1892–1973, British novelist, b. South Africa. A fantasy writer and Oxford don, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit (1937), adapted fro...

Tarahumara

(Encyclopedia)Tarahumara täräo͞omäˈrä [key], indigenous people of N Mexico, mostly in Chihuahua state. About 60,000 strong, they live for the most part in the barren wilderness of the Sierra Madre Occidental,...
 

Browse by Subject