Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Frost, Robert, 1874–1963, American poet, b. San Francisco. Perhaps the most popular and beloved of 20th-century American poets, Frost wrote of the character, people, and landscape of New England in ...

(Encyclopedia)  Maclaine, Shirley, 1934- , American actress and author, b. Richmond, Va., as Shirley MacLean Beaty. Maclaine’s father held various jobs in education...

(Encyclopedia) Acheson, Dean Gooderham ăchˈĭsən [key], 1893–1971, U.S. secretary of state (1949–53), b. Middletown, Conn., grad. Yale, Harvard Law School. He was (1919–21) private secretary to Louis Brande...

(Encyclopedia) Sontag, Susan sŏnˈtäg [key], 1933–2004, American writer and critic, b. New York City. She grew up in Arizona and California, studied philosophy at the Univ. of Chicago, Harvard, and Oxford, absor...

(Encyclopedia) Wolfe, Thomas Clayton, 1900–1938, American novelist, b. Asheville, N.C., grad. Univ. of North Carolina, 1920, M.A. Harvard, 1922. An important 20th-century American novelist, Wolfe wrote four mammot...

(Encyclopedia) bullfighting, national sport and spectacle of Spain. Called the corrida de toros in Spanish, the bullfight takes place in a large outdoor arena known as the plaza de toros. The object is for one of th...

(Encyclopedia)  De Niro, Robert Anthony, Jr., 1943-, American film actor and director, b. New York, N.Y. Both of De Niro’s parents were painters; De Niro was raised...

(Encyclopedia) Warhol, Andy, 1928–87, American artist and filmmaker, b. Pittsburgh as Andrew Warhola. The leading exponent of the pop art movement and one of the most influential artists of the late 20th cent., he...

(Encyclopedia) White House, official name of the executive mansion of the President of the United States. It is on the south side of Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C., facing Lafayette Square. The building, constr...

(Encyclopedia) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space e...