Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rustin, Bayard, 1910–87, African-American civil-rights leader, b. West Chester, Pa. He attended three colleges but did not obtain a degree. A Quaker, he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector fo...

(Encyclopedia) Wollstonecraft, Mary wo͝olˈstənkräft, –krăft [key], 1759–97, English author and feminist, b. London. She was an early proponent of educational equality between men and women, expressing this ...

(Encyclopedia) Capone, Al (Alfonso or Alphonse Capone) kəpōnˈ [key], 1899–1947, American gangster, b. Naples, Italy. Brought up in New York City, he became connected with organized crime and was the subject of ...

(Encyclopedia) Styron, William, 1925–2006, American novelist, b. Newport News, Va., grad. Duke, 1947. His fiction is often powerful, deeply felt, poetic, and elegiac. He became well known for his novel The Confess...

(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) Beowulf bāˈəwo͝olf [key], oldest English epic, probably composed in the early 8th cent. by an Anglian bard in the vicinity of Northumbria. It survives in only one manuscript, written c.a.d. 1000 b...

(Encyclopedia) H. D.: see Doolittle, Hilda.

(Encyclopedia) Simmel, Georg gāˈôrk zĭmˈəl [key], 1858–1918, German philosopher and sociologist. At the universities of Berlin and Strasbourg he was an influential lecturer. Basing his social philosophy on a...

(Encyclopedia) Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site: see National Parks and Monuments (table)national parks and monuments (table). ...

(Encyclopedia) Callias, d. c.370 b.c., Athenian leader, one of the generals of the Peloponnesian War. In his old age Callias was one of the ambassadors sent to Sparta with Callistratus to negotiate a peace treaty in...