Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bernhard, Thomas, 1931–89, Austrian novelist and playwright. A literary descendent of Kafka and Beckett, Bernhard wrote dense, intensely pessimistic and provocative works. Typically, his novels are ...

(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) Ruskin, John, 1819–1900, English critic and social theorist. During the mid-19th cent. Ruskin was the virtual dictator of artistic opinion in England, but Ruskin's reputation declined after his deat...

(Encyclopedia) Carson, Rachel Louise, 1907–64, American writer and marine biologist, b. Springdale, Pa., M.A. Johns Hopkins, 1932. Her well-known books on sea life—Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea around Us (1...

(Encyclopedia) Daly, Augustin, 1838–99, American theatrical manager and dramatist, b. Plymouth, N.C. After 1859 he was drama critic for several New York City newspapers and adapted many plays from French and Germa...

(Encyclopedia) Darling, Jay Norwood, 1876–1962, American cartoonist, known as “Ding,” b. near Charlevoix, Mich. He worked for the Sioux City, Iowa, Journal, for the Des Moines Register, and from 1917 to 1949 f...

(Encyclopedia) Cozzens, James Gould kŭzˈənz [key], 1903–78, American novelist, b. Chicago. His novels usually concern upper-middle-class professional men who are faced with moral dilemmas that require compromis...

(Encyclopedia) Sombart, Werner vĕrˈnər zômˈbärt [key], 1863–1941, German economist. In 1917 he became professor of economics at the Univ. of Berlin. Influenced by Marx's historical approach to economics, he ...

(Encyclopedia) Bruce, James, 1730–94, Scottish explorer in Africa. He explored Roman ruins in N Africa (1755) from Tunis to Tripoli and visited Crete, Rhodes, and Asia Minor. In 1768 he traveled down the Red Sea a...

(Encyclopedia) Graves, Robert Ranke, 1895–1985, English poet, novelist, and critic; son of Alfred Percival Graves. He established his reputation with Good-bye to All That (1929), an outspoken book on his war exper...