Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Beckford, William, 1760–1844, English author. A wealthy dilettante, Beckford had a great desire to ascend to the nobility. Unfortunately his erratic and strange behavior often worked against his amb...

(Encyclopedia) Somerset, Robert Carr, earl of, 1587?–1645, Scottish favorite of James I of England. His family name also appears as Ker. He may have accompanied James to England as a page in 1603, but he appears t...

(Encyclopedia) Scott, Robert Falcon, 1868–1912, British naval officer and antarctic explorer. He commanded two noted expeditions to Antarctica. The first expedition (1901–4), in the Discovery, organized jointly ...

(Encyclopedia) Campbell, Robert, 1804–79, American fur trader and merchant, one of the mountain men, b. Ireland. He came to the United States c.1824. Having been advised to lead an outdoor life because of a lung a...

(Encyclopedia) Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, 2d Viscount kăˈsəlrā [key], 1769–1822, British statesman, b. Ireland. Entering the Irish Parliament in 1790 and the British Parliament in 1794, he was acting chief s...

(Encyclopedia) Herrick, Robert, 1591–1674, English poet, generally considered the greatest of the Cavalier poets. Although he was born in London, he spent most of his childhood in Hampton. In 1607 he became appren...

(Encyclopedia) Campbell, Robert, 1808–94, Canadian fur trader and explorer, b. Scotland. Employed as a young man by the Hudson's Bay Company, he was sent in 1834 to the Mackenzie River region, where he remained un...

(Encyclopedia) Bloch, Marc blôk [key], 1886–1944, French historian and an authority on medieval feudalism. He taught at the Univ. of Strasbourg from 1919, became professor at the Sorbonne in 1936, and was cofound...

(Encyclopedia) Kawakubo, Rei, 1942–, Japanese fashion designer, b. Tokyo. After working for a textile manufacturer, she became (1967) a freelance stylist, founded (1969) the fashion label Comme des Garçons, and o...

(Encyclopedia) McClure, Sir Robert John Le Mesurier, 1807–73, British arctic explorer. He entered the navy and in 1848 accompanied Sir James Clark Ross to the arctic. As a naval captain he was given command (1850)...