Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Runyon, Damon (Alfred Damon Runyon), 1884–1946, American short story writer and journalist, b. Manhattan, Kans. He is best known for his humorous stories—written in a picturesque, slangy journalis...

(Encyclopedia) Manhattan, city (1990 pop. 37,712), seat of Riley co., NE Kans., at the confluence of the Big Blue and Kansas rivers; inc. 1857. It is the trade and processing center of a farm area. Much of the econo...

(Encyclopedia) Damon and Pythias dāˈmən, pĭthˈēəs [key], two youths whose loyalty to each other symbolizes true friendship. Pythias, a Pythagorean, condemned to death for plotting against Dionysius I of Syrac...

(Encyclopedia) Pythias: see Damon and Pythias.

(Encyclopedia) Lowell, Amy, 1874–1925, American poet, biographer, and critic, b. Brookline, Mass., privately educated; sister of Percival Lowell and Abbott Lawrence Lowell. In 1912 she published A Dome of Many-Col...

(Encyclopedia) Dole, Sanford Ballard, 1844–1926, Hawaiian statesman, b. Honolulu, of American missionary parents. After education in the United States he returned to Hawaii and became prominent in public life. A l...

(Encyclopedia) Carver, Raymond, 1938–88, American short-story writer, b. Clatskanie, Oreg. He was raised in the Pacific Northwest, where he often set his sparely written tales of everyday blue-collar life. His per...