Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bell, Alexander Melville, 1819–1905, Scottish-American educator, b. Edinburgh. Bell worked out a physiological or visible alphabet, with symbols that were intended to represent every sound of the hu...

(Encyclopedia) Barnet bärˈnət [key], outer borough of Greater London, SE England. Although mainly residen...

(Encyclopedia) Gibbons, Grinling, 1648–1721, English wood carver and sculptor, b. Rotterdam. From the reign of Charles II to that of George I he was master wood carver to the crown. Sir Christopher Wren employed h...

(Encyclopedia) Gollancz, Sir Hermann gŏlˈənts [key], 1852–1930, English rabbi and authority on Hebrew language and literature. He was professor of Hebrew (1902–24) at University College, London. In 1902 he ed...

(Encyclopedia) Grew, Nehemiah, 1641–1712, English botanist and physician. Grew practiced medicine in London and made important microscopic studies of plants. He made what were probably the first observations of se...

(Encyclopedia) Challoner, Richard chălˈənər [key], 1691–1781, English Roman Catholic prelate. Brought up a Protestant, he became a Roman Catholic in his teens and was ordained in 1716. In 1730 he returned from...

(Encyclopedia) Liddell Hart, Sir Basil Henry lĭˈdəl härt [key], 1895–1970, English author and military strategist, b. Paris. His education at Cambridge was interrupted by World War I, in which he served (1914�...

(Encyclopedia) Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948–, British theatrical composer. A member of a successful musical family, he began composing musicals as a teenager; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968) was ...

(Encyclopedia) Miller, Sir Jonathan Wolfe, 1934–2019, English director, actor, writer, and physician; during his long career in the performing arts, he at times devoted himself to medicine. Miller made his first L...

(Encyclopedia) marathon race, long-distance foot race deriving its name from Marathon, Greece. According to legend, in 490 b.c., Pheidippides, a runner from Marathon, carried news of victory over the Persians to Ath...