Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) unidentified flying object or UFO, an object or light reportedly seen in the sky whose appearance, trajectory, and general dynamic and luminescent behavior do not readily suggest a logical, convention...

(Encyclopedia) Kipling, Rudyard, 1865–1936, English author, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Educated in England, Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked as an editor on a Lahore paper. His early poems were col...

(Encyclopedia) Quidor, John kĭdôrˈ [key], 1801–81, American painter, b. Tappan, N.Y., studied with J. W. Jarvis. Little appreciated in his own time, he was subsequently accorded a place among the best early Ame...

(Encyclopedia) Coen Brothers, American filmmakers Joel Coen, 1955–, and Ethan Coen, 1958–, both b. St. Louis Park, Minn. Joel studied at New York Univ. Film School (B.A., 1978), Ethan at Princeton (B.A., 1979). ...

(Encyclopedia) Conrad, Joseph, 1857–1924, English novelist, b. Berdichev, Russia (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), originally named Jósef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski. Born of Polish parents, he is considered one of...

(Encyclopedia) Palmer, Daniel David, 1845–1913, American founder of chiropractic, b. near Toronto, Canada. He practiced and taught chiropractic, chiefly in Davenport, Iowa. His work was carried on and extended by ...

(Encyclopedia) Gordimer, Nadine nādēnˈ gôrˈdəmər [key], 1923–2014, South African writer, b. Springs. A member of the African National Congress, Gordimer fought apartheid in her political life and in her wri...

(Encyclopedia) Orwell, George, pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair, 1903–50, British novelist and essayist, b. Bengal, India. He is best remembered for his scathingly satirical and frighteningly political novels, Animal F...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, Samuel, 1709–84, English author, b. Lichfield. The leading literary scholar and critic of his time, Johnson helped to shape and define the Augustan Age. He was equally celebrated for his br...

(Encyclopedia) Paley, Grace, 1922–2007, American writer and social activist, b. the Bronx, N.Y., as Grace Goodside. In short stories mainly celebrating the lives of women, Paley paints the daily lives of working-c...