Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Breyer, Stephen Gerald brīˈər [key], 1938–, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court ...

(Encyclopedia) geriatrics jĕrēăˈtrĭks [key], the branch of medicine concerned with conditions and diseases of the aged. Many disabilities in old age are caused by or related to the deterioration of the circulat...

(Encyclopedia) Ginsberg, Allen gĭnzˈbûrg [key], 1926–97, American poet, b. Paterson, N.J., grad. Columbia, 1949. An outspoken member of the beat generation, Ginsberg is best known for Howl (1956), a long poem a...

(Encyclopedia) Ginsburg, Ruth Bader, 1933–2020, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1993–2020), b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Joan Ruth Bader. A graduate (1954) of Cornell, she attended Harvard Law School, then...

(Encyclopedia) Grand Ole Opry, weekly American radio program featuring live country and western music. The nation's oldest continuous radio sho...

(Encyclopedia) type, for printing, was invented in China (c.1040), using woodblocks. Related devices, such as seals and stamps for making impressions in clay, had been used in ancient times in Babylon and elsewhere....

(Encyclopedia) Lewis, Sinclair, 1885–1951, American novelist, b. Sauk Centre, Minn., grad. Yale Univ., 1908. Probably the greatest satirist of his era, Lewis wrote novels that present a devastating picture of midd...

(Encyclopedia) Marshall, Thurgood, 1908–93, U.S. lawyer and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1967–91), b. Baltimore. He received his law degree from Howard Univ. in 1933. In 1936 he joined the legal ...

(Encyclopedia) Indian Affairs, Bureau of, created (1824) in the U.S. War Dept. and transferred (1849) to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. The War Dept. managed Native American affairs after 1789, but a separate burea...

(Encyclopedia)  Alexander, Andrew Lamar, Jr., American politician, b. Maryville, Tn., Vanderbilt Univ. (B.A., 1962); New York Univ. (J.D., 1965). The son of educators, Alexander studied at Vanderbilt Uni...