Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wharton, Edith Newbold Jones, 1862–1937, American novelist, b. New York City, noted for her subtle, ironic, and superbly crafted fictional studies of New York society at the turn of the 20th cent. T...

(Encyclopedia) von Braun, Wernher vôn broun [key], 1912–77, German-American rocket scientist and astronautics engineer, b. Germany, grad. Berlin Technological Institute (B.S., 1932), Univ. of Berlin (Ph.D., 1934)...

(Encyclopedia) Washington, Booker Taliaferro, 1856–1915, American educator, b. Franklin co., Va. Washington was born into slavery; his mother was a mulatto slave on a plantation, his father a white man whom he nev...

(Encyclopedia) Sherman, Cindy (Cynthia Morris Sherman), 1954–, American photographer, b. Glen Ridge, N.J. In images in which makeup, costumes, wigs, and the like allow her to take on a variety of guises and roles,...

(Encyclopedia) Slater, Samuel, 1768–1835, American pioneer in the cotton textile industry, b. Derbyshire, England. As an apprentice and later a mill supervisor, he gained a thorough knowledge of all the cotton-man...

(Encyclopedia) Schiaparelli, Elsa skyäpärĕlˈlē [key], 1890–1973, French fashion designer, b. Rome. She established a house of couture in Paris that existed from the late 1920s until 1954, and opened a New Yor...

(Encyclopedia) essay, relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view. Although ...

(Encyclopedia) Freeman, Douglas Southall sŭᵺˈôl, –əl [key], 1886–1953, American editor and historian, b. Lynchburg, Va. ...

(Encyclopedia) Carroll, Lewis, pseud. of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832–98, English writer, mathematician, and amateur photographer, b. near Daresbury, Cheshire (now in Halton). Educated at Christ Church College, ...

(Encyclopedia) quinine kwīˈnīnˌ, kwĭnēnˈ [key], white crystalline alkaloid with a bitter taste. Before the development of more effective synthetic drugs such as quinacrine, chloroquine, and primaquine, quinin...