Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gresham, Walter Quintin grĕshˈəm [key], 1832–95, American public official, b. Harrison co., Ind. A lawyer, he entered politics as a Whig and helped organize the Republican party. President Grant ...

(Encyclopedia) Parsifal pärˈsĭfäl [key], figure of Arthurian legend also known as Sir Percivale, who is in turn a later form of a hero of Celtic myth. The name originally occurs as Pryderi, an alternative name o...

(Encyclopedia) Wellesley, Richard Colley Wellesley, 1st Marquess, 1760–1842, British colonial administrator; brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington. He became earl of Mornington on his father's death ...

(Encyclopedia) spiritism or spiritualism, belief that the human personality continues to exist after death and can communicate with the living through the agency of a medium or psychic. The advocates of spiritism ar...

(Encyclopedia) Gielgud, Sir John (Arthur John Gielgud) gĭlˈgo͝od [key], 1904–2000, English actor, director, and producer. A grandnephew of Ellen Terry, Gielgud made his debut at the Old Vic in 1921. His intelli...

(Encyclopedia) Gilbert, Sir William Schwenck, 1836–1911, English playwright and poet. He won fame as the librettist of numerous popular operettas, written in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. Wh...

(Encyclopedia) Twain, Mark, pseud. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910, American author, b. Florida, Mo. As humorist, narrator, and social observer, Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. His novel The Ad...

(Encyclopedia) Shoemaker, Bill (William Lee Shoemaker), 1931–2003, American jockey, b. Fabens, Tex. A schoolboy wrestler and Golden Gloves boxer, he became a jockey and won his first race at age 18. The former all...

(Encyclopedia) Gurney, A. R. (Albert Ramsdell Gurney, Jr.), 1930–2017, American dramatist, b. Buffalo, N.Y., B.A. Williams College, 1952, M.F.A. Yale School of Drama, 1958. He is best known for often humorous anal...

(Encyclopedia) McEwan, Ian (Ian Russell McEwan) məkyo͞oˈən [key], 1948–, English novelist, b. Aldershot, B.A. Univ. of Sussex, 1970, M.A. Univ. of East Anglia, 1971. His early short-story collections, First Lo...