Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Halsted, William Stewart hôlˈstĭd [key], 1852–1922, American surgeon, b. New York City, M.D. College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1877. He practiced in New York and in 1886 became the first profes...

(Encyclopedia) Porter, Katherine Anne, 1890–1980, American author, b. Indian Creek, Tex., as Callie Russell Porter. Although she published infrequently, she is regarded as a master of the short story. Her first bo...

(Encyclopedia) melodrama [Gr.,=song-drama], originally a spoken text with musical background, as in Greek drama. The form was popular in the 18th cent., when its composers included Georg Benda, J. J. Rousseau, and W...

(Encyclopedia) Synge, John Millington sĭng [key], 1871–1909, Irish poet and dramatist, b. near Dublin, of Protestant parents. He was an important figure in the Irish literary renaissance. As a young man he studie...

(Encyclopedia) Sun Tzu so͞on dzo͞o [key], fl. c.500–320. b.c., name used by the unknown Chinese authors of the sophisticated treatise on philosophy, logistics, espionage, and strategy and tactics known as The Ar...

(Encyclopedia) gerrymander jĕrˈēmănˌdər, gĕr– [key], in politics, rearrangement of voting districts so as to favor the party in power. The objective is to create as many districts as possible in areas of kn...

(Encyclopedia) Pabst, G. W. (Georg Wilhelm Pabst) gāˈôrkh vĭlˈhĕlm päpst [key], 1885–1967, German film director, b. Austria. He used montage in such works of social realism as The Joyless Street (1925), Pan...

(Encyclopedia) Allport, Gordon W. ôlˈpôrt [key], 1897–1967, American psychologist, b. Montezuma, Ind. One of the first psychologists to study personality, Allport researched human attitudes, prejudices, and rel...

(Encyclopedia) Abel, I. W. (Iorwith Wilbur Abel) yôrˈwĭth [key], 1908–87, American labor leader, b. Magnolia, Ohio. In 1925 he went to work in a rolling mill in Canton, Ohio, and was appointed (1937) staff repr...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, Richard W., 1827–97, Union general in the Civil War, b. Livingston co., Ky., grad. West Point, 1849. Before the Civil War he served principally on the frontier. Johnson, made a brigadier ge...