Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Tompkins, Daniel D., 1774–1825, American political figure, Vice President of the United States (1817–25), b. Scarsdale, N.Y. A leader of the Jeffersonian group in New York state, he was elected to...

(Encyclopedia) Rupp, Adolph Frederick, 1901–77, American college basketball coach, b. Halstead, Kans. He attended the Univ. of Kansas (grad. 1923), and began coaching at the Univ. of Kentucky in 1930, leading the ...

(Encyclopedia) Thomson, Charles, 1729–1824, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Co. Londonderry (now Derry), Ireland. Emigrating to America in 1739, he later taught school and became a merchant. His pr...

(Encyclopedia) Haley, Alex (Alexander Murray Palmer Haley), 1921–92, American writer, b. Ithaca, N.Y. Haley was for a time one of the most famous writers in the United States as the author of Roots: The Saga of an...

(Encyclopedia) Cabot, John, fl. 1461–98, English explorer, probably b. Genoa, Italy. He became a citizen of Venice in 1476 and engaged in the Eastern trade of that city. This experience, it is assumed, was the sti...

(Encyclopedia) Hammett, Dashiell dəshēlˈ [key], 1894–1961, American writer, b. St. Mary's co., Maryland. After a variety of jobs, including several years working as a detective for the Pinkerton agency, beginni...

(Encyclopedia) kinship, relationship by blood (consanguinity) or marriage (affinity) between persons; also, in anthropology and sociology, a system of rules, based on such relationships, governing descent, inheritan...

(Encyclopedia) Sinatra, Frank (Francis Albert Sinatra), 1915–98, American singer and actor, b. Hoboken, N.J. During the late 1930s and early 40s he sang with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands, causing teenage...

(Encyclopedia) Barragán, Luis, 1902–88, Mexican architect. Trained as an engineer, he traveled in France and Spain in the 1920s, and in France again in the early 30s when he met and was influenced by Le Corbusier...

(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., ...