Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kleist, Heinrich von hīnˈrĭkh fən klīst [key], 1777–1811, German dramatic poet. He is one of the most evocative and disturbing of the German Romantic writers. Kleist served (1792–99) in the P...

(Encyclopedia) Unser, Al (Alfred Unser, Sr.) ŭnˈsər [key] 1939–2021, American automobile racing driver, b. Albuquerque, ...

(Encyclopedia) Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), a British repertory theater. The company, established in 1960, was based on the earlier Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. It is a national theater s...

(Encyclopedia) Ploieşti ployĕshtˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 259,014), S central Romania, in Walachia. It is the chief center of the Romanian petroleum industry and of the Ploieşti oil region. The city is a railroad...

(Encyclopedia) San Francisco Symphony, orchestra founded 1911. It has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall since 1980. Henry Hadley, the original music director, was followed by Alfred Hertz (1915–30), ...

(Encyclopedia) Epirus, despotate of. When, in 1204, the army of the Fourth Crusade set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople on the ruins of the Byzantine Empire, an independent Greek state emerged in Epirus under M...

(Encyclopedia) Hamilton, Lewis (Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton), 1985–, British race car driver. After winning several European and world karting championships, he...

(Encyclopedia) Constantinople, Latin Empire of, 1204–61, feudal empire established in the S Balkan Peninsula and the Greek archipelago by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade (see Crusades) after they had sacked (120...

(Encyclopedia) Philip IV, 1605–65, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1621–65) and, as Philip III, king of Portugal (1621–40); son and successor of Philip III of Spain. Philip IV was intelligent but lacked int...

(Encyclopedia) watercolor painting, in its wider sense, refers to all pigments mixed with water rather than with oil and also to the paintings produced by this process; it includes fresco and tempera as well as aqua...