Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Calamity Jane

(Encyclopedia)Calamity Jane kəlămˈĭtē jānˈ [key], c.1852–1903, American frontier character, b. Princeton, Mo. Her real name was Martha Jane Canary, and the origin of her nickname is obscure. Little is know...

Tilton, Theodore

(Encyclopedia)Tilton, Theodore, 1835–1907, American journalist, b. New York City. After working for the New York Observer he was (1863–71) editor in chief of the Independent, a Congregationalist weekly. He late...

Sudermann, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Sudermann, Hermann hĕrˈmän zo͞oˈdərmän [key], 1857–1928, German dramatist and novelist. His play Die Ehre (1889; tr. Honor, 1906) was one of the first successes of the burgeoning German natur...

Heaney, Seamus

(Encyclopedia)Heaney, Seamus (Seamus Justin Heaney) shāˈməs, hēˈnē [key], 1939–2013, Irish poet, one of the finest contemporary English poets, b. Londonderry (now Derry), Northern Ireland, grad. Queen's Uni...

Paine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the servi...

Talmud

(Encyclopedia)Talmud tălˈməd [key] [Aramaic from Heb.,=learning], in Judaism, vast compilation of the Oral Law with rabbinical elucidations, elaborations, and commentaries, in contradistinction to the Scriptures...

Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich

(Encyclopedia)Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich ĭlyēchˈ chīkôfˈskē [key], 1840–93, Russian composer, b. Kamsko-Votkinsk. Variant transliterations of his name include Tschaikovsky and Chaikovsky. He is a towering f...

temperance movements

(Encyclopedia)temperance movements, organized efforts to induce people to abstain—partially or completely—from alcoholic beverages. Such movements occurred in ancient times, but ceased until the wide use of dis...

Verga, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Verga, Giovanni jōvänˈnē vĕrˈgä [key], 1840–1922, Italian novelist, b. Sicily. He abandoned the study of law for literature and wrote several novels of passion in the style of the French real...
 

Browse by Subject