Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pynchon, Thomas pĭnˈchən [key], 1937–, American novelist, b. Glen Cove, N.Y., grad. Cornell, 1958. Pynchon is noted for his amazingly fertile imagination, his wild sense of humor, and the teeming...

(Encyclopedia) Smith, Zadie, 1975–, British writer. The biracial daughter of an English father and Jamaican mother, Smith burst on the literary scene in 2000 with her first novel, White Teeth, the award-winning be...

(Encyclopedia) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), independent executive bureau of the U.S. government established by the National Security Act of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services (1942–45),...

(Encyclopedia) Christophe, Henri äNrēˈ krēstôfˈ [key], 1767–1820, Haitian revolutionary leader. A freed black slave, he aided Toussaint Louverture in the liberation of Haiti and was army chief under Dessalin...

(Encyclopedia) Stradivari, Antonio ăntōˈnēəs strădĭvârˈēəs [key], 1644–1737, Italian violin maker of Cremona; pupil of Niccolò Amati. He was apprenticed to Amati c.1658 and may have remained with him u...

(Encyclopedia) Miller, Merton H., 1923–2000, American economist, grad. Harvard, 1943, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1952. A professor at Carnegie-Mellon Univ. (1953–61) and the Univ. of Chicago (1961–93), he developed ...

(Encyclopedia) Hays, Will H., 1879–1954, American politician and motion-picture executive, b. Sullivan, Ind.; his original name was William Harrison Hays. Hays became active in Indiana political affairs, was chair...

(Encyclopedia) Thaler, Richard H., 1945–, American economist, b. East Orange, N.J., Ph.D. Univ. of Rochester, 1974. He was a professor at the Univ. of Rochester (1974–78) and at Cornell (1978–95), and has been...

(Encyclopedia) Eigenmann, Carl H. īˈgənmən [key], 1863–1927, American ichthyologist, b. Germany, grad. Indiana Univ., 1886. From 1891 he taught at Indiana Univ., founding and directing the biological station a...

(Encyclopedia) Gombrich, E. H. (Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich), 1909–2001, British art historian and scholar, b. Vienna, grad. Univ. of Vienna (1933). From a culturally prominent Austrian-Jewish family, he fled German...