Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lee, Richard Henry, 1732–94, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Westmoreland co., Va.; brother of Arthur Lee, Francis L. Lee, and William Lee. He served in the house of burgesses (1758�...

(Encyclopedia) Kendall, Edward Calvin, 1886–1972, American biochemist, b. South Norwalk, Conn., grad. Columbia (B.S., 1908; Ph.D., 1910). At St. Luke's Hospital, New York City, he did research on the thyroid gland...

(Encyclopedia) Weygand, Maxime mäksēmˈ vāgäNˈ [key], 1867–1965, French general, b. Belgium. A career army officer, he was (1914–23) chief of staff to Marshal Foch, and in 1920 he directed the defense of Wa...

(Encyclopedia) Dinesen, Isak ēˈsäk dēˈnəsən [key], pseud. of Baroness Karen Blixen, 1885–1962, Danish author, who wrote primarily in English. In 1914 she married Baron Blixen and went to live in British Eas...

(Encyclopedia) allegory, in literature, symbolic story that serves as a disguised representation for meanings other than those indicated on the surface. The characters in an allegory often have no individual persona...

(Encyclopedia) Cycladic art sĭklădˈĭk [key], Bronze Age art of the Cyclades, an island group of the central Aegean. Early tomb remains include several types of jugs, pots, and bowls decorated in geometric design...

(Encyclopedia) King William Island, part of the Arctic Archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean, Nunavut Territory, Canada, between Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. The northern coast of the island was explored (1831)...

(Encyclopedia) Kwakiutl kwäˈkēo͞oˌtəl [key], group of closely related Native North Americans who inhabit N Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland of British Columbia, Canada. They, together with the Nootka...

(Encyclopedia) Katz, Alex, 1927–, American painter, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied Cooper Union, New York City (1946–49), Skowhegan School, Maine (1949–50). At a time when abstract expressionism captured most crit...

(Encyclopedia) string theory, description of elementary particles based on one-dimensional curves, or “strings,” instead of point particles. Superstring theory, which is string theory that contains a kind of sym...