Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Watts, George Frederic, 1817–1904, English painter and sculptor. He studied at the Royal Academy and in Italy, where he developed an enthusiasm for Renaissance painting and Greek sculpture that grea...

(Encyclopedia) pseudonym so͞oˈdənĭm [key] [Gr.,=false name], name assumed, particularly by writers, to conceal identity. A writer's pseudonym is also referred to as a nom de plume (pen name). Famous examples in ...

(Encyclopedia) purification, in religion, the ceremonial removal of what the religion deems unclean. The usual agents of purification are water (as in baptism), bodily alteration (as in circumcision), and fire. The ...

(Encyclopedia) Balfour, Sir James, d. 1583, Scottish judge and politician. Captured (1547) at St. Andrews after the murder of Cardinal Beaton, he served a sentence in the French galleys and on his release (1549) abj...

(Encyclopedia) Beverley, town, East Riding of Yorkshire, NE England. Beverley is primarily a market town with some shipbuilding and such light industries as the manufa...

(Encyclopedia) William II, 1626–50, prince of Orange, stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1647–50), son and successor of Frederick Henry. He married (1641) Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I ...

(Encyclopedia) Robertson, William, 1721–93, Scottish churchman and historian. As moderator (1762–80) of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, he led the moderate party and enforced the right of the sta...

(Encyclopedia) Rogers, John, 1500?–1555, English Protestant martyr, grad. Cambridge, 1526. He became a Roman Catholic priest, but under the influence of William Tyndale, whom he met in Antwerp, he turned (1535) to...

(Encyclopedia) Rutledge, Ann, 1813?–1835, American historical figure, alleged fiancée of Abraham Lincoln. Her father kept the inn at New Salem, Ill., where Lincoln lived from 1831 to 1837. Ann's sudden death from...

(Encyclopedia) Sackville-West, Vita (Victoria Mary Sackville-West), 1892–1962, English writer; wife of Sir Harold Nicolson and granddaughter of the 2d Baron Sackville. Both she and Nicolson were members of the Blo...