Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Seminole, Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They separated (their name means “separatist”)...

(Encyclopedia) Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1885–1954, American writer, educator, philosopher, and cultural critic, b. Philadelphia, grad. Harvard (A.B., 1907; Ph.D., 1918), first African-American Rhodes Scholar at Oxford ...

(Encyclopedia) Lowell, James Russell, 1819–91, American poet, critic, and editor, b. Cambridge, Mass. He was influential in revitalizing the intellectual life of New England in the mid-19th cent. Educated at Harva...

(Encyclopedia) Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 1723–92, English portrait painter, b. Devonshire. Long considered historically the most important of England's painters, by his learned example he raised the artist to a positi...

(Encyclopedia) Dryden, John, 1631–1700, English poet, dramatist, and critic, b. Northamptonshire, grad. Cambridge, 1654. He went to London about 1657 and first came to public notice with his Heroic Stanzas (1659),...

(Encyclopedia) Dulbecco, Renato rənätˈō dŭlbĕkˈō [key], 1914–2012, Italian-American virologist, b. Catanzaro, Italy. In 1947 he came to the United States to work with Salvador Luria at Indiana Univ. in Blo...

(Encyclopedia) Kerry, John Forbes, 1943–, U.S. politician, b. Denver, grad. Yale, 1966, Boston College law school, 1976. A decorated navy veteran who served two tours in Vietnam after graduating from Yale, Kerry w...

(Encyclopedia) Kaufman, George S. kôfˈmən [key], 1889–1961, American dramatist and journalist, b. Pittsburgh as George Kaufman. As a drama critic for various New York newspapers he was influential in raising th...

(Encyclopedia) Root, Elihu, 1845–1937, American cabinet member and diplomat, b. Clinton, N.Y. Admitted to the bar in 1867, he practiced law in New York City, became prominent in Republican politics, and was appoin...

(Encyclopedia) Peloponnesian War pĕlˈəpənēˈzhən [key], 431–404 b.c., decisive struggle in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta. It ruined Athens, at least for a time. The rivalry between Athens' maritim...