Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Tolstaya, Tatyana tōlstīˈyä [key], 1951–, Russian short-story writer and essayist. Increasingly recognized as one of the major European writers of the postwar generation, Tolstaya is part of a R...

(Encyclopedia) Morton, James Douglas, 4th earl of, d. 1581, Scottish nobleman. A nephew of Archibald Douglas, 6th earl of Angus, he married Elizabeth Douglas, from whose father he inherited (1553) the earldom of Mor...

(Encyclopedia) Bonaparte, Charles Joseph, 1851–1921, U.S. cabinet official, b. Baltimore; grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte and Elizabeth Patterson. A lawyer and political leader in Baltimore, he identified himself w...

(Encyclopedia) Zlatoust zlətəo͞ostˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 208,000), E European Russia, on the Ai River in the S Urals. It is a rail terminus and an old metallurgical center. Besides steel mills, the city has me...

(Encyclopedia) epitaph, strictly, an inscription on a tomb; by extension, a statement, usually in verse, commemorating the dead. The earliest such inscriptions are those found on Egyptian sarcophagi. In England epit...

(Encyclopedia) Nekrasov, Nikolai Alekseyevich nyĭkəlīˈ əlyĭksyāˈyəvĭch nyĭkräˈsəf [key], 1821–78, Russian poet, editor, and publisher. Nekrasov began writing poetry when he was seven. Disowned by his...

(Encyclopedia) Heywood, John hāˈwo͝od [key], 1497?–1580?, English dramatist. He was employed at the courts of Henry VIII and Mary I as a singer, musician, and playwright. At the accession of Elizabeth I in 1564...

(Encyclopedia) Kingisepp kēnˌgĭsyĕpˈ [key], city, NW European Russia, SW of St. Petersburg, near the Estonian border, on the Luga River. A river port, it has leather and shoe industries. The site was settled in...

(Encyclopedia) Crimean War krīmēˈən [key], 1853–56, war between Russia on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, and Sardinia on the other. The causes of the conflict were inherent in the ...

(Encyclopedia) Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st marquess of dŭfˈərĭn, äˈvə, āˈvə [key], 1826–1902, British diplomat. He served on numerous missions abroad, as governor-ge...