Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Josephine, 1763–1814, empress of the French (1804–9) as the consort of Napoleon I. Born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Martinique, she was married in 1779 to Alexandre de Beauharnais...

(Encyclopedia) World Health Organization (WHO), specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1948, with its headquarters at Geneva. WHO admits all sovereign states (including those not belonging to the U...

(Encyclopedia) Golding, William (Sir William Gerald Golding), 1911–93, English novelist, grad. Oxford (B.A. 1934). Praised for his highly imaginative and original writings, Golding was basically concerned with the...

(Encyclopedia) Spencer, Sir Stanley, 1891–1959, English painter. In his landscapes and his often highly erotic portraits and religious-allegorical scenes, Spencer's paintings express a highly personal magic realis...

(Encyclopedia) Clough, Arthur Hugh klŭf [key], 1819–61, English poet. He was educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford, where he became friends with Matthew Arnold. After graduation (1841) he was fellow and t...

(Encyclopedia) Lowell, Robert (Robert Traill Spence Lowell 4th), 1917–77, American poet and translator, widely considered the preeminent American poet of the mid-20th cent., b. Boston, grad. Kenyon College (B.A., ...

(Encyclopedia) Onassis, Jacqueline Bouvier bo͞oˈvē-āˌ, bo͞ovyāˈ [key], 1929–94, b. Southampton, N.Y. Of a socially prominent family, she worked (1951–53) as a journalist and photographer before marrying ...

(Encyclopedia) Rao, Raja rou [key], 1909–2006, Indian novelist, b. Hassan, Mysore (now Karnataka), as Raja. Rao took his surname as an adult, and was educated in India and France and for many years divided his ti...

(Encyclopedia) arbitration, industrial, method of settling disputes between two parties by seeking and accepting the decision of a third party. Arbritration differs from mediation in that the arbritrator does not at...

(Encyclopedia) Benjamin, Park, 1809–64, American journalist, b. British Guiana (now Guyana). As owner and editor of the New England Magazine, he merged it (1835) with the American Monthly Magazine of New York and ...