Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Nibelungen –lētˌ [key] [song of the Nibelungen] is a long Middle High German epic by a south German poet of the early 13th cent. It includes pagan legends and traditions but is patently the produc...

(Encyclopedia) Filmer, Sir Robert, d. 1653, English royalist political writer, author of Patriarcha; or, The Natural Power of Kings (pub. posthumously in 1680), a defense of the divine right of monarchs by an exposi...

(Encyclopedia) Ramanujan, Srinivasa shrēˌnĭväˈsə rämäˈno͝ojən [key], 1889–1920, Indian mathematician. He was a self-taught genius in pure mathematics who made original contributions to function theory, ...

(Encyclopedia) Pharr fär [key], city (1990 pop. 32,921), Hidalgo co., extreme S Tex.; inc. 1916. It is located in the irrigated region of the lower Rio Grande valley. Transportation equipment and concrete blocks ar...

(Encyclopedia) Alice, city (2020 pop. 17,891), seat of Jim Wells co., S Tex.; inc. 1910. Long a cow town at a railroad junction, Alice remains a cattle-shipping center. Oil and natural gas are also impor...

(Encyclopedia) Burkburnett bûrkbərnĕtˈ [key], city (2020 pop. 10,939), Wichita co., N Tex., near the Okla. line; ...

(Encyclopedia) Valois, Dame Ninette de vălˈwä [key], 1898–2001, English ballet director, b. County Wicklow, Ireland. She was originally named Edris Stannus. After attaining distinction as a dancer, most notably...

(Encyclopedia) Verga, Giovanni jōvänˈnē vĕrˈgä [key], 1840–1922, Italian novelist, b. Sicily. He abandoned the study of law for literature and wrote several novels of passion in the style of the French real...

(Encyclopedia) Maddox, Lester G. (Lester Garfield Maddox, Sr), 1915–2003, U.S. public official, governor of Georgia (1967–71), b. Atlanta. He achieved national notoriety in 1964 when he drove African Americans f...

(Encyclopedia) Robinson, Edward G., 1893–1973, American movie actor, b. Bucharest, Romania, as Emmanuel Goldberg. He made his stage debut in New York City in 1915. A short, tough-looking man, Robinson played both ...