Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich păsˈtərnăkˌ, Rus. bərēsˈ lyāˌənyēˈdəvĭch pəstyĭrnäkˈ [key], 1890–1960, Russian poet and translator. Pasternak became an international symbol of the in...

(Encyclopedia) Atad āˈtăd [key], in the Bible, name of the unidentified threshing floor where Joseph and his brethren mourned the death of Jacob. ...

(Encyclopedia) Warton, Thomas, 1728–90, English poet and literary historian, grad. Trinity College, Oxford (1747), brother of Joseph Warton. He was ordained and eventually served as professor of poetry at Oxford f...

(Encyclopedia) New Economic Policy (NEP), official economic reconstruction program of the USSR from 1921 to 1928. It replaced the economic policies of “war Communism” (1918–21), an emergency program establishe...

(Encyclopedia) Peter III, 1717–86, king of Portugal (1777–86), younger brother of Joseph. He married his niece Maria I and was joint ruler with her, though she generally was the dominant figure. ...

(Encyclopedia) Romanus II, 939–63, Byzantine emperor (959–63), son and successor of Constantine VII. A profligate, he came under the domination of his second wife, Theophano. She, along with the eunuch Joseph Br...

(Encyclopedia) monitorial system, method of elementary education devised by British educators Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell during the 19th cent. to furnish schooling to the underprivileged even under conditions ...

(Encyclopedia) Charles Augustus, 1757–1828, duke and, after 1815, grand duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach; friend and patron of Goethe, Schiller, and Herder. Though his duchy was small, he was important in German polit...

(Encyclopedia) Cooper, Thomas, 1759–1839, American scientist, educator, and political philosopher, b. London, educated at Oxford. His important works include Political Essays (1799); the appendixes to the Memoirs ...

(Encyclopedia) Safra, family of Brazilian bankers with Sephardic Jewish roots. They began as merchant bankers in Syria and Lebanon, financing caravans throughout the Middle East. The Safras are also noted philanthro...