Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pied Piper of Hamelin, legendary figure of Hameln, Germany. He rid the town of its rats and mice by charming them away with his flute playing. When the citizens refused to pay him the price they had a...

(Encyclopedia) Field, Michael, pseud. used by two English authors, Katherine Harris Bradley, 1846–1914, and her niece Edith Emma Cooper, 1862–1913, who collaborated on numerous literary works, including lyrics a...

(Encyclopedia) Galuppi, Baldassare bäldäs-säˈrā gälo͞opˈpē [key], 1706–85, Italian composer. A pupil of Lotti, he developed the opera buffa style in the period between Scarlatti and Mozart, and he also wr...

(Encyclopedia) Rattigan, Sir Terence Mervyn, 1911–77, British dramatist. One of England's most popular and commercially successful contemporary playwrights, he was the master of the tightly crafted “problem play...

(Encyclopedia) Cauchon, Pierre pyĕr kōshôNˈ [key], d. 1442, bishop of Beauvais, France, president of the ecclesiastic court that convicted (1431) Joan of Arc at Rouen. His violent partisanship for the English ma...

(Encyclopedia) Wilder, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, 1867–1957, American author of the classic Little House series of children's books, b. Pepin, Wis. She and her pioneer family traveled (1869–79) throughout the Midw...

(Encyclopedia) Elizabeth, 1837–98, empress of Austria and queen of Hungary. A Bavarian princess, she was married (1854) to her cousin, Emperor Francis Joseph. Despite her exceptional beauty, intelligence, and kind...

(Encyclopedia) Taylor, Elizabeth, 1932–2011, Anglo-American film actress, b. London. Regarded as one of the world's most beautiful women, Taylor went from child star and typical teenager roles to a series of ladyl...

(Encyclopedia) Wellesley College, at Wellesley, Mass.; for women; chartered 1870, opened 1875. Long a leader in women's education, it was the first woman's college to have scientific laboratories. With Lake Waban an...