Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Barnes, Julian Patrick, English author, 1946–. During the 1970s and 80s he was a critic and editor for the New Statesman and New Review, a correspondent for The New Yorker, and a writer and editor f...

(Encyclopedia) Granger movement, American agrarian movement taking its name from the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization founded in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley and six associates. Its local uni...

(Encyclopedia) Shaw, Lemuel, 1781–1861, American jurist, b. Barnstable, Mass. After a career in the Massachusetts state legislature, Shaw served as chief justice for the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts (18...

(Encyclopedia) ice cream, sweet frozen dessert, made from milk fat and solids, sugar, flavoring, a stabilizer (usually gelatin), and sometimes eggs, fruits, or nuts. The mix is churned at freezing temperature to att...

(Encyclopedia) Shechtman, Daniel S., 1941–, Israeli materials scientist, Ph.D. Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), 1972. Shechtman, who joined the faculty at Technion in 1975, received the Nobel Prize in Ch...

(Encyclopedia) Byatt, A. S. (Antonia Susan Byatt) bīˈət [key], 1936–, British novelist; sister of Margaret Drabble. Educated at Cambridge, Bryn Mawr College, Pa., and Oxford, she is a noted critic and novelist ...

(Encyclopedia) Coleman, James S., 1926–95, American sociologist, b. Bedford, Ind. A graduate of Columbia (Ph.D., 1955), where he was influenced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Coleman achieved recognition with two studies on ...

(Encyclopedia) Gordon, Bruce S., 1946–, African-American business executive and civil-rights leader, b. Camden, N.J.; grad. Gettysburg College (B.A., 1968), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S., 1988). Gord...

(Encyclopedia) Langland, William, c.1332–c.1400, putative author of Piers Plowman. He was born probably at Ledbury near the Welsh marshes and may have gone to school at Great Malvern Priory. Although he took minor...

(Encyclopedia) asbestos, common name for any of a variety of silicate minerals within the amphibole and serpentine groups that are fibrous in structure and more or less resistant to acid and fire. Chrysotile asbesto...