Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gilberto, João (João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira), 1931–2019, Brazilian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. With Carlos Jobim and others, he created the cool, sophisticated Brazilian popular...

(Encyclopedia) French, Daniel Chester, 1850–1931, American sculptor, b. Exeter, N.H., studied in Florence and in Boston with William Rimmer. After executing his first large work, The Minute Man (1875), he received...

(Encyclopedia) Grinnell, Josiah Bushnell, 1821–91, American pioneer, clergyman, and abolitionist, b. New Haven, Vt. As pastor (1851–52) of the First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C., he created a sensat...

(Encyclopedia) Fallada, Hans ro͞oˈdôlf dĭtˈsən [key], 1893–1947, German novelist. Little Man, What Now? (1932, tr. 1933), his story of a young couple in Germany after World War I, was an immediate internatio...

(Encyclopedia) David II (David Bruce), 1324–71, king of Scotland (1329–71), son and successor of Robert I. David's guardians were not strong enough to prevent the invasion (1332) of Scotland by Edward de Baliol,...

(Encyclopedia) Somerset, Edward Seymour, duke of, 1506?–1552, protector of England. He served on various military and diplomatic missions for Henry VIII and, after the marriage of his sister Jane to the king, was ...

(Encyclopedia) stellar populations, two broadly contrasting distributions of star types that are characteristic of different parts of a galaxy. Population I stars are young, recently formed stars, whereas population...

(Encyclopedia) Saint-Simon, Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de klōd äNrē də ro͞ovrwäˈ kôNt də săN-sēmôNˈ [key], 1760–1825, French social philosopher; grand nephew of Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simo...

(Encyclopedia) rattlesnake, poisonous New World snake of the pit viper family, distinguished by a rattle at the end of the tail. The head is triangular, being widened at the base. The rattle is a series of dried, ho...

(Encyclopedia) eel, common name for any fish in the order Anguilliformes, and characterized by a long snakelike body covered with minute scales embedded in the skin. Eels lack the hind pair of fins, adapting them fo...