Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) metaphysical poets, name given to a group of English lyric poets of the 17th cent. The term was first used by Samuel Johnson (1744). The hallmark of their poetry is the metaphysical conceit (a figure ...

(Encyclopedia) Le Gallienne, Eva ləgălˈyən [key], 1899–1991, American actress, producer, director, and translator, b. London; daughter of poet Richard Le Gallienne. She made her debut in London in 1915 and in ...

(Encyclopedia) Kendall, Henry Way, 1926–99, American physicist. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kendall won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics with Jerome Friedman and Richard Taylor for a s...

(Encyclopedia) Newgate nyo͞oˈgĭt [key], former prison in the City of London, England, originally in the gatehouse of the principal west gate of London. Dating from the 12th cent. and burned by Wat Tyler's followe...

(Encyclopedia) meistersinger mīˈstərsĭngˌər, Ger. mīˈshtərzĭngˌər [key] [Ger.,=mastersinger], a member of one of the musical and poetic guilds that flourished in German cities during the 15th and 16th ce...

(Encyclopedia) Mellon Foundation, officially the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, philanthropic trust formed (1969) through the merger of the Avalon Foundation (est. 1940 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce) and the Old Dominion Foun...

(Encyclopedia) photorealism, international art movement of the late 1960s and 70s that stressed the precise rendering of subject matter, often taken from actual photographs or painted with the aid of slides. Also kn...

(Encyclopedia) Mitchell, John Newton, 1913–88, U.S. Attorney General (1969–72), b. Detroit. A law partner of Richard M. Nixon, he managed Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign and was made (1969) Attorney General. ...

(Encyclopedia) Stans, Maurice Hubert môrēsˈ hyo͞oˈbərt stănz [key], 1908–98, U.S. government official, b. Shakopee, Minn. He worked as an accountant for many years before serving in the Eisenhower administr...

(Encyclopedia) Dyson, Sir Frank Watson dīˈsən [key], 1868–1939, English astronomer, b. Ashby-de-la-Zouch, grad. Cambridge. He was astronomer royal of Scotland (1905–10) and of England (from 1910). As director...