Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Alcman ălkˈmən [key], fl. 620 b.c., Greek lyric poet of Sparta. He was the earliest writer of Dorian choral poetry whose work has survived. Short choral fragments and a longer one (part of a parthe...

(Encyclopedia) sleeping pill, a pill containing medication that induces sleep. Benzodiazepines such as temazepam (Restoril) and triazolam (Halcion) have for the most part replaced barbiturates as drugs of choice for...

(Encyclopedia) Barbauld, Anna Letitia (Aikin) bärˈbôld [key], 1743–1825, English poet and editor. In 1774 she married Rochemont Barbauld and with him opened a boarding school. Her Hymns in Prose for children, w...

(Encyclopedia) Narayan, R. K. (Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan) nərīˈyän [key], 1906–2001, Indian novelist, b. Madras (now Chennai). Narayan, who wrote in English, published his first novel, Swami and Friends, ...

(Encyclopedia) Anderson, Sherwood, 1876–1941, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Camden, Ohio. After serving briefly in the Spanish-American War, he became a successful advertising man and later a manage...

(Encyclopedia) Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 1836–1907, American author and editor, b. Portsmouth, N.H. His most widely read work was The Story of a Bad Boy (1870), a vigorous narrative based on his own boyhood. His sho...

(Encyclopedia) sandgrouse, common name for pigeon-sized, seed-eating, terrestrial birds of the genera Pteroclida (approximately 14 species) and Syrrhaptes (2 species). They are birds of the Old World deserts and ste...

(Encyclopedia) Canalejas y Méndez, José hōsāˈ känälāˈhäs ē mānˈdāth [key], 1854–1912, Spanish politician. After holding several cabinet posts, he became premier in 1910. A democratic radical who hope...

(Encyclopedia) Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 1840–94, American novelist, b. Claremont, N.H.; grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, and author of a number of well-written and popular works, including the novels Anne ...

(Encyclopedia) Qian Zhongshu or Ch'ien Chung-shu, 1910–98, Chinese writer and scholar, grad. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (1933). After attending Oxford and the Sorbonne, he returned (1939) to China and taught at sever...