Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Caine, Hall

(Encyclopedia)Caine, Hall (Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine), 1853–1931, English novelist. Secretary to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, he lived with him from 1881 until the poet's death and wrote Recollections of Rossetti (1...

Vian, Boris

(Encyclopedia)Vian, Boris bôrēsˈ vyäN [key], 1920–59, French novelist. He patterned his literary style on that of terse American crime fiction. His best-known work is J'irai cracher sur vos tombes [I will spi...

York Factory

(Encyclopedia)York Factory, fur-trading post, NE Man., Canada, on Hudson Bay, at the mouth of the Hayes River, just east of the mouth of the Nelson River. The name was used for several early (late-17th-century) pos...

Adrian VI, pope

(Encyclopedia)Adrian VI, 1459–1523, pope (1522–23), a Netherlander (b. Utrecht) named Adrian Florensz; successor of Leo X. He taught at Louvain and was tutor of the young prince, later Holy Roman Emperor Charle...

Wilkie, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Wilkie, Sir David, 1785–1841, Scottish genre painter. He studied in Edinburgh and at the Royal Academy and won early popularity with his admirable little scenes of everyday life. Anecdotal painting ...

Wilson, James Grant

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, James Grant, 1832–1914, American biographer and man of letters, b. Scotland. He was brought to the United States in 1833. After journalistic work in Chicago and service in the Union army in ...

Whyte, William Hollingsworth

(Encyclopedia)Whyte, William Hollingsworth, 1917–99, b. West Chester, Pa. He graduated from Princeton (1939), then served in the Marine Corps (1941–45). Writing for Fortune magazine (1946–58), he developed a ...

Sultan Husayn

(Encyclopedia)Sultan Husayn so͝oltänˈ ho͞osānˈ [key], d. 1729, Safavid shah of Persia (1694–1722). A weak and superstitious man, Shah Sultan Husayn was surrounded by astrologers and fanatics and was able to...

Susanna

(Encyclopedia)Susanna. 1 Heroine of a story told in the Book of Daniel, in a chapter (13) placed in the Apocrypha in the Authorized Version (see Daniel). Two elders attempt to seduce Susanna and are repulsed; they ...

Roth, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Roth, Philip (Philip Milton Roth), 1933–2018, American author, one of the most important novelists of the 20th cent., b. Newark, N.J., B.A. Bucknell Univ., 1954, M.A. Univ. of Chicago, 1955. His wri...
 

Browse by Subject