Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Graupner, Christoph krĭsˈtôf groupˈnər [key], 1693–1760, German composer, studied at Leipzig with Johann Heinichen and Johann Kuhnau. After playing harpsichord at the Hamburg opera (1706–9) u...

(Encyclopedia) diamond, mineral, one of two crystalline forms of the element carbon (see allotropy), the hardest natural substance known, used as a gem and in industry. The discoveries of 1870–71 in South Africa...

(Encyclopedia) Ford, Henry, 1863–1947, American industrialist, pioneer automobile manufacturer, b. Dearborn, Mich. Henry Ford's son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 1893–1943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast ...

(Encyclopedia) Narayan, R. K. (Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan) nərīˈyän [key], 1906–2001, Indian novelist, b. Madras (now Chennai). Narayan, who wrote in English, published his first novel, Swami and Friends, ...

(Encyclopedia) New Thought, popular philosophical movement with religious implications; it affirms “the creative power of constructive thinking.” A successor of New England transcendentalism, New Thought grew ou...

(Encyclopedia) Palin, Sarah Heath pāˈlĭn [key], 1964–, U.S. politician, b. Sandpoint, Idaho, as Sarah Louise Heath, grad. Univ. of Idaho (B.S. 1987). Her family moved to Alaska not long after she was born. In 1...

(Encyclopedia) Mitford, Nancy, 1904–73, English novelist and biographer, b. London. She managed a London bookshop during World War II and moved to Paris in 1945. Mitford and her five celebrated and politically div...

(Encyclopedia) Western Federation of Miners (WFM), a radical labor union that organized the miners and smelter workers of the Rocky Mountain states. Created in 1893 by the merger of several local miners' unions, the...

(Encyclopedia) Durkheim, Émile dûrkˈhīm, Fr. āmēlˈ dürkĕmˈ [key], 1858–1917, French sociologist. Along with Max Weber he is considered one of the chief founders of modern sociology. Educated in France an...

(Encyclopedia) Hurston, Zora Neale, 1891?–60, African-American writer, b. Notasulga, Ala. She grew up in the pleasant all-black town of Eatonville, Fla., and graduated from Barnard College, where she studied with ...