Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy bēˈtən [key], 1904–80, English scenery and costume designer, photographer, writer, painter, and diarist. After designing his first stage show (1935), Beaton worked ...

(Encyclopedia) Longworth, Alice Lee Roosevelt, 1884–1980, American socialite, b. New York City. The only child of Theodore Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, she was a teenager when her father assum...

(Encyclopedia) Juan Manuel, Infante de Castile hwän mänwĕlˈ, ēnfänˈtā ᵺā kästēˈlā [key], 1282–1349?, Spanish nobleman, soldier, and writer; nephew of Alfonso X (called the Wise). Juan Manuel was a w...

(Encyclopedia) Snyder, Gary, 1930–, American poet, b. San Francisco. Associated with the beat generation of the 1950s, he lived (1956–68) in Japan, where he trained as a Zen monk. His poetry, influenced by Zen B...

(Encyclopedia) Aldington, Richard ôlˈdĭngtən [key], 1892–1962, English poet and novelist. While studying at the Univ. of London, he became acquainted with Ezra Pound and H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), whom he marrie...

(Encyclopedia) H. D.: see Doolittle, Hilda.

(Encyclopedia) Monitor and Merrimack, two American warships that fought the first engagement between ironclad ships. When, at the beginning of the Civil War, the Union forces abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard at Ports...

(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) Ausonius (Decimus Magnus Ausonius) ôsōˈnēəs [key], c.310–c.395, Latin poet and man of letters, b. Bordeaux. He tutored Gratian, who, when he ascended the throne, made Ausonius prefect of Gaul, ...

(Encyclopedia) bone china, variety of porcelain developed by English potters in the last half of the 18th and early 19th cent. The clay is tempered with phosphate of lime or bone ash. This innovation greatly increas...