Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Arcaro, Eddie (George Edward Arcaro) ärkârˈō [key], 1916–97, American jockey, b. Cincinnati. In a thirty-year career (1931–62), he won 4,779 races and his mounts won $30,039,543 in purses, lea...

(Encyclopedia) pentathlon pĕntăthˈlən [key], composite athletic event. In ancient Greece it comprised leaping, foot racing, wrestling, discus throwing, and casting the javelin. The modern pentathlon, an Olympic ...

(Encyclopedia) Smith, Sir Harry George Wakelyn, 1787–1860, British general and administrator. He served in the Peninsular War and in the War of 1812 and was a brigade major at the battle of Waterloo. He commanded ...

(Encyclopedia) Ziegfeld, Florenz flôrˈənz zēgˈfĕld [key], 1869–1932, American theatrical producer, b. Chicago. The talent manager son of a German immigrant, in 1907 he first produced the Ziegfeld Follies, fo...

(Encyclopedia) Kellogg, W. K. (Will Keith Kellogg): see Kellogg, John Harvey. ...

(Encyclopedia) Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton), 1874–1936, English author. Conservative, even reactionary, in his thinking, Chesterton was a convert (1922) to Roman Catholicism and its champion. He ha...

(Encyclopedia) Williams, C. K. (Charles Kenneth Williams), 1936–2015, American poet, b. Newark, N.J., grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1959. He wrote more than 20 books of poetry, rich in detail, with complex syntax a...

(Encyclopedia) Rowling, J. K. (Joanne Kathleen Rowling) rōlˈibreve;ing [key], 1965–, English author known for her popular children's books. While unemployed she completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone...

(Encyclopedia) Ephron, Nora Louise, 1941–2012, American writer and film director, grad. Wellesley College (B.A., 1962). Witty, tough, self-deprecating, and ironic in all her guises, she was a reporter for the New ...

(Encyclopedia) personal watercraft (PWC), a lightweight vessel usually less than 16 ft (5 m) long that uses an inboard water jet pump, powered by an internal-combustion engine, as its primary source of propulsion. T...