Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) curlew kûrˈlo͞o [key], common name for large shore birds of both hemispheres, generally brown and buff in color and with decurved bills. There are eight species, belonging to the genus Numenius. Th...

(Encyclopedia) Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728–1814, American writer, b. Barnstable, Mass.; sister of James Otis and wife of James Warren, who was speaker of the Massachusetts house of representatives. An ardent patriot,...

(Encyclopedia) Quincy, Josiah kwĭnˈzē [key], 1744–75, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Boston. An outstanding lawyer, he wrote a series of anonymous articles for the Boston Gazette in which he op...

(Encyclopedia) Platt, Orville Hitchcock, 1827–1905, U.S. Senator (1879–1905), b. Washington, Litchfield co., Conn. Platt held many public offices in Connecticut before he served in the U.S. Senate. He helped fra...

(Encyclopedia) McDonagh, Martin məkdŭnˈə [key], 1970–, Anglo-Irish playwright, b. London to Irish parents. During summer visits he became acquainted with W Ireland, and without any formal training he wrote a s...

(Encyclopedia) Moore, George, 1852–1933, English author, b. Ireland. As a young man he lived in Paris, studying at various art schools. Inspired by Zola, Flaubert, Turgenev, and the 19th-century French realists, M...

(Encyclopedia) Morgenthau, Hans Joachim, 1904–80, American political scientist and foreign policy analyst, b. Coburg, Germany. After studying at the universities of Frankfort and Munich, he attended the Graduate I...

(Encyclopedia) drought, abnormally long period of insufficient rainfall. Drought cannot be defined in terms of inches of rainfall or number of days without rain, since it is determined by such variable factors as th...

(Encyclopedia) Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian group originating in the United States at the end of the 19th cent., organized by Charles Taze Russell, whose doctrine centers on the Second Coming of Christ. The Witnes...

(Encyclopedia) Haneke, Michael häˈnəkə [key], 1942–, Austrian film director and screenwriter, b. Munich, Germany. In the 1970s and 80s, he wrote and directed for television and the theater. His first film, The...