Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Dinwiddie, Robert, 1693–1770, colonial governor of Virginia (1751–58), b. near Glasgow, Scotland. He was collector of customs (1727–38) for Bermuda and surveyor general (1738–51) for the Baham...

(Encyclopedia) Dobrynin, Anatoly Fyodorovich, 1919–2010, Soviet diplomat, b. Krasnaya Gorka. He studied at a Moscow aviation institute, designed aircraft during World War II, and was selected after the war for dip...

(Encyclopedia) Fort Necessity, entrenched camp built in July, 1754, by George Washington and his Virginia militia at Great Meadows (near the present Uniontown, Pa.). He retired there when he learned that the British...

(Encyclopedia) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), organization composed mainly of American blacks, but with many white members, whose goal is the end of racial discrimination and seg...

(Encyclopedia) Powers, Hiram, 1805–73, American sculptor, b. Woodstock, Vt. Having moved to Ohio, he made wax models for a Cincinnati museum. In 1835 he began his career as a sculptor, spending some time in Washin...

(Encyclopedia) Byrne, Jane, 1934–2014, American politician, b. Chicago as Margaret Jane Burke. She was Chicago's consumer sales commissioner (1968–77) under Mayor Richard Daley before she became the first woman ...

(Encyclopedia) Munro, Alice, 1931–, Canadian writer, b. Wingham, Ont., as Alice Ann Laidlaw. Much acclaimed as one of the finest contemporary short-story writers, Munro is known for quiet, insightfully realistic, ...

(Encyclopedia) Carey, Peter, 1943–, Australian novelist, b. near Melbourne. Carey's combination of science fiction and fantasy motifs with a realistic style, displayed in the short stories in The Fat Man in Histor...

(Encyclopedia) Kadare, Ismail ēsmäēlˈ kädärĕˈ [key], 1936–, Albanian novelist and poet, widely regarded as his country's most important contemporary writer, b. Gjirokastër, studied Univ. of Tiranë, Gorky...

(Encyclopedia) Banville, John, 1945–, Irish novelist. His novels, which stress language over plot and narrative, are written in a dense, elaborate, and highly original blend of poetry and prose. They are allusive,...