Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Proust, Marcel pro͞ost [key], 1871–1922, French novelist, b. Paris. He is one of the great literary figures of the modern age. Born to wealthy bourgeois parents, he suffered delicate health as a c...

(Encyclopedia) Scorsese, Martin skôrsāˈzē, –sĕzˈē [key], 1942–, American film director; b...

(Encyclopedia) Beard, Charles Austin, 1874–1948, American historian, b. near Knightstown, Ind. A year at Oxford as a graduate student gave him an interest in English local government, and after further study at Co...

(Encyclopedia) García Márquez, Gabriel gäbrēĕlˈ gärsēˈä märˈkās [key], 1927–2014, Colombian novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, b. Aracataca. Widely considered one of the great Latin America...

(Encyclopedia) Beckmann, Max mäks bĕkˈmän [key], 1884–1950, German painter. A member of the Berlin secession from 1908 to 1911, he was impressionistic in his early style. A subsequent expressionistic phase was...

(Encyclopedia) Soyer, three brothers, American painters, emigrated with their family from Russia in 1912. Two were twins, Raphael Soyer, 1899–1987, and Moses Soyer, 1899–1974, b. Borisoglebsk. They settled in Ne...

(Encyclopedia) Bukowski, Charles, 1920–94, American underground poet and fiction writer, b. Andernach, Germany. His family immigrated to the United States in 1922, settling in Los Angeles. A hard-drinking unskille...

(Encyclopedia) Noyes, John Humphrey, 1811–86, American reformer, founder of the Oneida community, b. Brattleboro, Vt. He studied theology at Yale but lost his license to preach because of his “perfectionist” d...

(Encyclopedia) Dundee, Angelo, 1921–2012, American boxing trainer, most famous for his work with Muhammad Ali, b. Philadelphia as Angelo Mirena, Jr. After serving in World War II he moved to New York City, where h...

(Encyclopedia) Cameron, James, 1954–, Canadian motion-picture director and screenwriter, b. Kapuskasing, Ont. Beginning as a screenwriter and then art director, he first directed in 1981. His science-fiction block...