Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Fairbanks, Douglas, 1883–1939, American movie actor, b. Denver. From 1901 to 1914, Fairbanks appeared on stage in light comedies. In 1915 he began making movies, becoming the swashbuckling hero of h...

(Encyclopedia) Grundtvig, Nikolai Frederik Severin nĭkōlīˈ frĭᵺˈərĭk sĕvərēnˈ gro͝ontˈvĭg [key], 1783–1872, Danish educator, minister, and writer, founder of the Danish folk high school. He came i...

(Encyclopedia) Deve Gowda, H. D. (Haradanahalli Dodde Gowda Deve Gowda) härˌədänˌəhäˈlē dōˈdā dāˈvā gouˈdə [key], 1933–, Indian political leader, prime minister of India (1996–97), b. Haradanaha...

(Encyclopedia) Mafia mäˈfēä [key], name given to a number of organized groups of Sicilian brigands in the 19th and 20th cent. Unlike the Camorra in Naples, the Mafia had no hierarchic organization; each group op...

(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) Rutherford, Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron, 1871–1937, British physicist, b. New Zealand. Rutherford left New Zealand in 1895, having earned three degrees from the Univ. of New Zealand but having fail...

(Encyclopedia) metaphysics mĕtəfĭzˈĭks [key], branch of philosophy concerned with the ultimate nature of existence. It perpetuates the Metaphysics of Aristotle, a collection of treatises placed after the Physic...

(Encyclopedia) Lysenko, Trofim Denisovich lĭsĕngˈkō, Rus. trəfēmˈ dyĭnyēˈsəvĭch lĭsyĕnˈkə [key], 1898–1976, Russian agronomist. As president of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences ...

(Encyclopedia) Niebuhr, Reinhold rīnˈhōld nēˈbo͝or [key], 1892–1971, American religious and social thinker, b. Wright City, Mo. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, he served (1915–28) as pastor of Bethel E...

(Encyclopedia) Cela, Camilo José kämēˈlō hōsāˈ thāˈlä [key], 1916–2002, Spanish novelist, short-story writer, and poet, b. Iria Flavia. Among the writers to emerge after the Spanish civil war, he won cr...