Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

329 results found

Beeson, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Beeson, Jack, 1921–2010, American composer, b. Muncie, Ind. Beeson studied at the Eastman School of Music and privately in New York with Béla Bartók. Teaching at Columbia from 1945, he was named M...

Watson, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Watson, Tom (Thomas Sturges Watson), 1949–, American golfer, b. Kansas City, Mo. Considered the successor to Jack Nicklaus as the game's foremost player in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Watson won...

Palestine, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Palestine pălˈəstēn [key], city (1990 pop. 18,042), seat of Anderson co., E Tex.; inc. 1871. It is a market, processing, and rail center for a rich oil area and for the truck crops, livestock, and...

Boise project

(Encyclopedia)Boise project, in the Boise, Payette, and Snake river valleys, SW Idaho and E Oregon; developed in 1905 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for irrigation, hydroelectricity, flood control, and recreatio...

Floyd, John Buchanan

(Encyclopedia)Floyd, John Buchanan, 1807–63, U.S. Secretary of War (1857–60) and Confederate general, b. Smithfield, Va. After failing as a lawyer and cotton planter in Arkansas, he returned to Virginia and pra...

Smith, Seba

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Seba, 1792–1868, American humorist, b. Buckfield, Maine. He founded the Portland Courier in 1829 and in it began (1830) a series of humorous letters on politics under the pen name Major Jack ...

Stout, Rex

(Encyclopedia)Stout, Rex, 1886–1975, American writer, b. Noblesville, Ind. He served in the navy and worked in New York City as founder and director of the Vanguard Press. His best-known works are nearly 70 myste...

Blackheath

(Encyclopedia)Blackheath, common, 267 acres (108 hectares) in Lewisham and Greenwich boroughs, London, England. It was the gathering place of highwaymen and of several martial groups, including the followers of Wat...

euchre

(Encyclopedia)euchre yo͞oˈkər [key], card game, played usually by four persons (two sets of partners). The game originated among the Amish and was a popular card game in America in the late 19th cent. The pack h...

mechanism

(Encyclopedia)mechanism, philosophical theory about the nature of organic systems, holding that organisms are machines in the sense that they are material systems. Mechanism seeks to explain biological processes, i...
 

Browse by Subject