Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Sade, Donatien Alphonse François, comte de dônäsyăNˈ älfôNsˈ fräNswäˈ kôNt də säd [key], 1740–1814, French writer and libertine. He is known as the marquis de Sade —the title he held...

(Encyclopedia) Sayles, John (John Thomas Sayles), 1950–, one of America's most influential independent filmmakers as well as a screenwriter, fiction writer, playwright, and actor, b. Schenectady, N.Y., grad. Willi...

(Encyclopedia) Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806–61, English poet, b. Durham. A delicate and precocious child, she spent a great part of her early life in a state of semi-invalidism. She read voraciously—philoso...

(Encyclopedia) Agee, James āˈjē [key], 1909–55, American writer, b. Knoxville, Tenn., grad. Harvard, 1932. He soon joined the literary and journalistic life of New York City, becoming (1932) a writer for Fortun...

(Encyclopedia) libido lĭbēˈdō, –bīˈ– [key] [Lat.,=lust], psychoanalytic term used by Sigmund Freud to identify instinctive energy with the sex instinct. For Freud, libido is the generalized sexual energy o...

(Encyclopedia) Parker, Isaac Charles, 1838–96, American frontier judge, b. Belmont co., Ohio. Self-taught in law, Parker began practice in St. Joseph, Mo., in 1859. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representati...

(Encyclopedia) Patterson, Elizabeth, 1785–1879, American wife of Jérôme Bonaparte, b. Baltimore. On a visit to America, Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, met and married her (1803). Jérôme was...

(Encyclopedia) Layard, Sir Austen Henry lāˈərd [key], 1817–94, English archaeologist and diplomat. Between 1842 and 1851 he explored and excavated in Mesopotamia, especially at Nineveh. In the period from 1852 ...

(Encyclopedia) Hirsch, Emil Gustav hûrsh [key], 1851–1923, American rabbi, b. Luxembourg. He was rabbi in Baltimore and Louisville, Ky., but is best known for his work as rabbi of the Sinai congregation of Chicag...

(Encyclopedia) Nerval, Gérard de zhārärˈ də nĕrvälˈ [key], 1808–55, French writer, an early romantic. His real name was Gérard Labrunie. His writings include translations of Faust (1828) and other German ...