Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Allende, Isabel

(Encyclopedia)Allende, Isabel, 1942–, Chilean novelist. Since the 1973 coup in which her cousin, President Salvador Allende Gossens, died, Isabel Allende, who is among the most notable contemporary Chilean writer...

Rodgers, Richard Charles

(Encyclopedia)Rodgers, Richard Charles, 1902–79, American composer, b. New York City. Rodgers studied at Columbia and the Institute of Musical Art, New York City. He met both of his future collaborators, Lorenz H...

Rimbaud, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Rimbaud, Arthur ärtürˈ răNbōˈ [key], 1854–91, French poet who had a great influence on the symbolists and subsequent modern poets, b. Charleville. A defiant and precocious youth, Rimbaud at 16...

relocation center

(Encyclopedia)relocation center, in U.S. history, camp in which Japanese and Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II. Fearing a Japanese invasion, the military leaders, under authority of an executive ...

Piaget, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Piaget, Jean zhäNpyäˈjā [key], 1896–1980, Swiss psychologist, known for his research in developmental psychology. After receiving a degree in zoology from the Univ. of Neuchâtel (1918), Piaget'...

Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex

(Encyclopedia)Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex, 1485?–1540, English statesman. While a young man he lived abroad as a soldier, accountant, and merchant, and on his return (c.1512) to England he engaged in the wool...

Verdi, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Verdi, Giuseppe vârˈdē, Ital. jo͞ozĕpˈpā vĕrˈdē [key], 1813–1901, foremost Italian composer of opera, b. Le Roncole. Verdi, the son of an innkeeper, showed a precocious talent for the orga...

diseases of plants

(Encyclopedia)diseases of plants. Most plant diseases are caused by fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Although the term disease is usually used only for the destruction of live plants, the action of dry rot and the rot...

Murasaki Shikibu

(Encyclopedia)Murasaki Shikibu mo͞oˌräsäˈkē shēˌkēbo͞oˈ [key], c.978–1031?, Japanese novelist, court figure at the height of the Heian period (794–1185). Known also as Lady Murasaki, she is celebrate...

Morley, Sylvanus Griswold

(Encyclopedia)Morley, Sylvanus Griswold, 1883–1948, American archaeologist, b. Chester, Pa., grad. Harvard, 1908. A specialist in Middle American archaeology and Mayan heiroglyphs, Morley did fieldwork (1909–14...
 

Browse by Subject