Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Waite, Morrison Remick wāt [key], 1816–88, American jurist, 7th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1874–88), b. Lyme, Conn. Admitted to the bar in 1839, he became prominent when he represen...

(Encyclopedia) Tibetan language, member of the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages). It is spoken by 5 million people in the Tibet autonomous region and the Qi...

(Encyclopedia) Regency style, in English architecture, flourished during the regency and reign of George IV (1811–30) and was chiefly represented by the court architect John Nash. The period is characterized by th...

(Encyclopedia) Gesualdo, Carlo kärˈlō jāzo͞oälˈdō [key], Prince of Venosa, c.1560–1613, Italian composer. Gesualdo's first musical work was published in 1585. His complex later madrigals, contained in the ...

(Encyclopedia) Hockney, David, 1937–, English painter, studied Royal College of Art. Moving from a distorted, semiexpressionist form of pop art, Hockney developed a highly personal realistic style, producing image...

(Encyclopedia) Oppenheimer, J. Robert ŏpˈənhīˌmər [key], 1904–67, American physicist, b. New York City, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1925), Ph.D. Univ. of Göttingen, 1927. He taught at the Univ. of California and t...

(Encyclopedia) Ngugi wa Thiong'o ĕngo͞oˈgē wä tē-ŏngˈgō [key] or James Ngugi, 1938–, Kenyan writer, acclaimed as East Africa's foremost novelist. He studied at universities in Uganda and England. His firs...

(Encyclopedia) Doctorow, E. L. (Edgar Lawrence Doctorow) dŏkˈtərōˌ [key], 1931–2015, American novelist, b. New York City. The author of a dozen novels, Doctorow is known for his skillful blending of fiction a...

(Encyclopedia) James, C. L. R., 1901–1989, Trinidadian historian, journalist, and communist activist, b. Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago. A social theorist, anti-colon...

(Encyclopedia) lemming, name for several species of mouselike rodents related to the voles. All live in arctic or northern regions, inhabiting tundra or open meadows. They frequently nest in underground burrows, par...