Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Battle of Britain, in World War II, series of air battles between Great Britain and Germany, fought over Britain from Aug. to Oct., 1940. As a prelude to a planned invasion of England, the German Luft...

(Encyclopedia) Sturges, Preston stûrˈjĭs [key], 1898–1959, American film director, screenwriter, and producer, b. Chicago as Edmond Preston Biden. Educated in the United States and Europe, he turned to playwrit...

(Encyclopedia) Rorty, Richard, 1931–2007, American philosopher. b. New York City. After studying at the Univ. of Chicago (B.A. 1949, M.A. 1952) and Yale (Ph.D. 1956), Rorty taught philosophy at Wellesley College (...

(Encyclopedia) Rossetti, Christina Georgina rōsĕtˈē [key], 1830–94, English poet; daughter of Gabriele Rossetti and sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Publication of some of her poems in her brother William's m...

(Encyclopedia) Ransom, John Crowe, 1888–1974, American poet and critic, b. Pulaski, Tenn., grad. Vanderbilt Univ. and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He is considered one of the great stylists of 20th-centu...

(Encyclopedia) Sallust (Caius Sallustius Crispus) sălˈəst [key], 86 b.c.–c.34 b.c., Roman historian. He was tribune of the people (52 b.c.) and praetor (46). He was ejected (50) from the senate ostensibly for a...

(Encyclopedia) Anaxagoras ănˌəksăgˈərəs [key], c.500–428 b.c., Greek philosopher of Clazomenae. He is credited with having transferred the seat of philosophy to Athens. He was closely associated with many f...

(Encyclopedia) Gosse, Sir Edmund William gŏs [key], 1849–1928, English biographer and critic. He was lecturer in English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge (1884–90) and librarian of the House of Lords (1...

(Encyclopedia) Mutesa I mo͞otāˈsə [key], d. 1884, kabaka, or king, of Buganda (now in Uganda), c.1857–84. He brought Buganda to its height by increasing the autocratic powers of the kabaka, strengthening the a...

(Encyclopedia) Peabody, Endicott pēˈbädē, –bədē [key], 1857–1944, American educator, b. Salem, Mass., grad. Cheltenham College, 1876, LL.B. Cambridge, 1880. Ordained (1885) in the Episcopal Church, Peabody...