Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gregory VII, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Gregory VII, Saint, d. 1085, pope (1073–85), an Italian (b. near Rome) named Hildebrand (Ital. Ildebrando); successor of Alexander II. He was one of the greatest popes. Feast: May 25. Gregory's co...

Henry III, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)Henry III, 1379–1406, Spanish king of Castile and León (1390–1406), son and successor of John I. His marriage (1388) to Catherine, daughter of John of Gaunt, ended a long dynastic conflict. Henry...

Rhys, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Rhys, Jean rēs [key], pseud. of Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams, 1894–1979, English novelist, b. Dominica. Her novels written in the 1930s mercilessly exploit her own emotional life, depicting pretty...

Bacon, Francis, English painter

(Encyclopedia)Bacon, Francis, 1910–92, English painter, b. Dublin. A self-taught artist, Bacon rejected abstraction in painting to explore a repertoire of strange, fractured, and often bizarre figurative images, ...

Foote, Horton

(Encyclopedia)Foote, Horton (Albert Horton Foote, Jr.), 1916–2009, American playwright and screenwriter, b. Wharton, Tex. He studied acting and acted in California and New York, and wrote his first one-act play i...

Williams, Sir Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Sir Bernard (Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams), 1929–2003, English philosopher, grad. Oxford (1951). One of the most important philosophers of his era, he is credited with reviving the fie...

Bentham, Jeremy

(Encyclopedia)Bentham, Jeremy, 1748–1832, English philosopher, jurist, political theorist, and founder of utilitarianism. Educated at Oxford, he was trained as a lawyer and was admitted to the bar, but he never p...

Murger, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Murger, Henry äNrēˈ mürzhĕrˈ [key], 1822–61, French poet and novelist. His Scènes de la vie de Bohème (1845–49; tr., 1905, 1930), like many of his works, is a romantic and sentimental acco...

Cotton, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Cotton, Henry (Thomas Henry Cotton), 1907–87, British golfer, b. Cheshire, England. Although he played as a professional at the age of 17, Cotton did not achieve international recognition until he w...

Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of

(Encyclopedia)Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of sŭfˈək [key], d. 1545, English nobleman. A member of the court of Henry VIII, he received many preferments. He was created (1513) Viscount Lisle on his betroth...
 

Browse by Subject