Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Holly, Buddy, 1936–59, American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, b. Lubbock, Tex., as Charles Hardin Holley. He performed country and western m...

(Encyclopedia) Agnew, Spiro Theodore spērˈō [key], 1918–96, 39th Vice President of the United States (1969–73), b. Baltimore. Admitted to the bar in 1949, he entered politics as a Republican and was elected (...

(Encyclopedia) Streisand, Barbra, 1942–, American singer and actress, b. New York City. Streisand first gained a relatively small but select audience singing in New York City cabarets, and she received her first w...

(Encyclopedia) Porter, Katherine Anne, 1890–1980, American author, b. Indian Creek, Tex., as Callie Russell Porter. Although she published infrequently, she is regarded as a master of the short story. Her first bo...

(Encyclopedia) Browne, Sir Thomas, 1605–82, English author and physician, b. London, educated at Oxford and abroad, knighted (1671) by Charles II. His Religio Medici, in which Browne attempted to reconcile science...

(Encyclopedia) Morgan, American family of financiers and philanthropists. Junius Spencer Morgan, 1813–90, b. West Springfield, Mass., prospered at investment banking. As a boy he became a dry-goods clerk in Boston...

(Encyclopedia) Pelletier, Pierre Joseph pyĕr zhôzĕfˈ pĕlətyāˈ [key], 1788–1842, French chemist. With J. B. Caventou, he was cofounder of alkaloid chemistry and codiscoverer of quinine, strychnine, brucine,...

(Encyclopedia) Latrobe, John Hazlehurst Boneval, 1803–91, American philanthropist, b. Philadelphia; son of Benjamin H. Latrobe. He studied law, and from 1828 until his death he was regularly retained as counsel fo...

(Encyclopedia) McCardell, Claire, 1905–58, American fashion designer, b. Frederick, Md. She began her career as a model and assistant designer for Robert Turk in 1929. Her clothes were functional with clean lines ...

(Encyclopedia) Lawson, Ernest, 1873–1939, American landscape painter, b. San Francisco. He studied art in Kansas City, in New York City under Twachtman and J. Alden Weir, and in Paris. On returning to New York he ...