Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) pitta pĭtˈə [key], name used to refer to a genus (Pitta) of small, plump, brightly colored birds. The genus, including some twenty-three species, constitutes the whole of the family Pittidae. Known...

(Encyclopedia) Friel, Brian frēl [key], 1929–2015, Irish playwright, b. Killyglogher, Northern Ireland. Treating themes that enmesh both Irelands, he became the most acclaimed Irish dramatist of the late 20th cen...

(Encyclopedia) Hoyle, Edmond hoil [key], 1672–1769, English writer on games, b. London. He codified the rules of whist in his book A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist (1742) and in successive editions of the boo...

(Encyclopedia) Garshin, Vsevolod Mikhailovich fəsyĕˈvələt mēkhīˈləvĭch gärˈshĭn [key], 1855–88, Russian short-story writer. “Four Days” (1877), his story of a wounded soldier's ordeal in battle, f...

(Encyclopedia) Hemingway, Ernest, 1899–1961, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Oak Park, Ill. one of the great American writers of the 20th cent. Hemingway's fiction usually focuses on people living ...

(Encyclopedia) Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud Montgomery), 1874–1942, Canadian novelist, b. Prince Edward Island. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908), met with immediate success and has been widely translat...

(Encyclopedia) Henderson, Fletcher (James Fletcher “Smack” Henderson), 1898–1952, American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist, b. Cuthbert, Ga. Henderson played piano from childhood. Short of funds after com...

(Encyclopedia) Barrios, Eduardo āᵺwärˈᵺō bärˈyōs [key], 1884–1963, Chilean novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He was director of libraries and minister of education in Chile. As a writer he w...

(Encyclopedia) Canada First movement, party that appeared in Canada soon after confederation (1867). Its purpose was to encourage the growth of nonpartisan loyalty to the new dominion of Canada. In Toronto, in 1874,...

(Encyclopedia) Ashmun, Jehudi, 1794–1828, U.S. agent to Liberia, b. Champlain, N.Y. After entering the Congregationalist ministry and spending a few years in teaching and editorial work, he was sent by the America...