Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Brook Farm, 1841–47, an experimental farm at West Roxbury, Mass., based on cooperative living. Founded by George Ripley, a Unitarian minister, the farm was initially financed by a joint-stock compan...

(Encyclopedia) Sacco-Vanzetti Case săkˈō-vănzĕtˈē [key]. On Apr. 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Mass., and his guard were shot and killed by two men who escaped with over $15,000...

(Encyclopedia) Plotinus plōtīˈnəs [key], 205–270, Neoplatonist philosopher. A native of Egypt, perhaps of Roman descent, he went to Alexandria c.232 to devote himself to philosophy. For 10 years he was a dedic...

(Encyclopedia) minstrel show, stage entertainment by white performers made up as blacks. Thomas Dartmouth Rice, who gave (c.1828) the first solo performance in blackface and introduced the song-and-dance act Jim Cro...

(Encyclopedia) Pécs pāch [key], Ger. Fünfkirchen, city (1991 est. pop. 170,000), SW Hungary, near the Croatian border. A county administrative seat and a railroad hub, Pécs is the industrial center of Hungary's ...

(Encyclopedia) Ayckbourn, Sir Alan ākˈbôrn [key], 1939–, English playwright and director, b. London. One of Britain's most successful and prolific dramatists, he had his first play produced in 1959 and since th...

(Encyclopedia) Ditko, Steve (Stephen John Ditko), 1927–2018, American comic-book artist, b. Johnstown, Pa., studied early 1950s Cartoonist and Illustrator School (later School of Visual Arts), New York City. Much ...

(Encyclopedia) Connolly, Cyril kŏnˈəlē [key], 1903–74, English critic and editor, b. Coventry, England. After attending the Univ. of Oxford, he began his career as a journalist. With Stephen Spender he founded...

(Encyclopedia) Cyprian, Saint sĭpˈrēən [key], 200?–258, Father of the Church, bishop of Carthage (c.248), and perhaps a disciple of Tertullian. Converted in his middle age, he rose quickly to become the most p...

(Encyclopedia) Zamojski or Zamoyski, Jan both: yän zämoiˈskē [key], 1542–1605, Polish statesman, general, and author. He championed the rights of the lesser nobility; after the extinction (1572) of the Jagiell...