Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) speech, freedom of, liberty to speak and otherwise express oneself and one's opinions. Like freedom of the press (see press, freedom of the), which pertains to the publication of speech, freedom of sp...

(Encyclopedia) Bird, Robert Montgomery, 1806–54, American playwright and novelist, b. New Castle, Del., M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1827. He wrote several prizewinning verse plays for the actor Edwin Forrest, nota...

(Encyclopedia) elegy, in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. b.c. in Greece and poe...

(Encyclopedia) Moody, Deborah, d. 1659, American colonial religious leader and colonizer, b. England. She emigrated (1639) to Massachusetts Bay and settled in Saugus (now Lynn, Mass.). After being admonished (1643) ...

(Encyclopedia) Memling or Memlinc, Hans häns mĕmˈlĭng, –lĭngk [key], c.1430–1494, Flemish religious and portrait painter, b. Germany. He may have studied with Roger van der Weyden in Brussels, but after 146...

(Encyclopedia) Livonian Brothers of the Sword or Livonian Knights lĭvōˈnēən [key], German military and religious order, founded in 1202 by Bishop Albert of Livonia for the purpose of conquest and Christianizati...

(Encyclopedia) Jones, Sir William, 1746–94, English philologist and jurist. Jones was celebrated for his understanding of jurisprudence and of Oriental languages. He published an Essay on the Law of Bailments (178...

(Encyclopedia) Nguyen Chi Thien, 1939–2012, Vietnamese poet. Thien began composing poetry during the three years he spent in prison after he told his history students that their textbook wrongly credited the USSR ...

(Encyclopedia) Ryman, Robert Tracy, 1930–2019, American painter, b. Nashville, Tenn. While working (1953–60) as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City he was immersed in modern and contemporary wor...

(Encyclopedia) Bonar, Horatius bŏnˈər [key], 1808–89, Scottish clergyman and hymn writer. In 1837 he became minister to the North Parish in Kelso; in 1843, Bonar, with his congregation, seceded in the movement ...