Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Sudermann, Hermann hĕrˈmän zo͞oˈdərmän [key], 1857–1928, German dramatist and novelist. His play Die Ehre (1889; tr. Honor, 1906) was one of the first successes of the burgeoning German natur...

(Encyclopedia) Tara târˈə [key], village, Co. Meath, E Republic of Ireland. The Hill of Tara (507 ft/155 m high) was the seat of the high kings of Ireland from ancient times until the 6th cent. and may have been ...

(Encyclopedia) Dongan, Thomas dŏngˈgən [key], 1634–1715, colonial governor of New York, b. Co. Kildare, Ireland. He was appointed governor in 1682, and on the instructions of the duke of York (later James II), ...

(Encyclopedia) Cynewulf kĭnˈəwo͝olfˌ, ko͝onˈ– [key], fl. early 9th cent.?, Old English religious poet of Northumbria or Mercia. Four poems have been ascribed to him on the evidence of his signatures in rune...

(Encyclopedia) Bergonzi, Carlo, 1924–2014, Italian opera singer. He began his career as a baritone, debuting in 1948, but he made a second debut as a tenor in 1951 after realizing his voice was better suited to th...

(Encyclopedia) Granville-Barker, Harley, 1877–1946, English dramatist, actor, producer, and critic. As comanager of the Court Theatre from 1904 to 1907 he was an advocate and producer of “uncommercial” and exp...

(Encyclopedia) Kaunitz, Wenzel Anton, Fürst von vĕnˈtsəl änˈtôn fürst fən kouˈnĭts [key], 1711–94, Austrian statesman. He distinguished himself as a negotiator of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) an...

(Encyclopedia) Stalin, Joseph Vissarionovich stäˈlĭn, Rus. vĭsəryôˈnəvĭch stäˈlyĭn [key], 1879–1953, Soviet Communist leader and head of the USSR from the death of V. I. Lenin (1924) until his own deat...

(Encyclopedia) Pius VI, 1717–99, pope (1775–99), an Italian named G. Angelo Braschi, b. Cesena; successor of Clement XIV. He was created cardinal in 1774. Early in his reign he was faced with the attempts of Hol...

(Encyclopedia) Turner, Joseph Mallord William, 1775–1851, English landscape painter, b. London. Turner was the foremost English romantic painter and the most original of English landscape artists; in watercolor he...