Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wirth, Karl Joseph kärl yōˈzĕf vĭrt [key], 1879–1956, German statesman. A leader of the Catholic Center party, he succeeded (1920) Matthias Erzberger as minister of finance. In 1921, Wirth beca...

(Encyclopedia) Watts-Dunton, Theodore (Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton), 1832–1914, English poet, novelist, and critic. A member of the staff of the Examiner (1874–76), he became editor of the Athenaeum (1876–98)...

(Encyclopedia) epigram, a short, polished, pithy saying, usually in verse, often with a satiric or paradoxical twist at the end. The term was originally applied by the Greeks to the inscriptions on stones. The epigr...

(Encyclopedia) Gide, Charles zhēd [key], 1847–1932, French economist. A professor at the universities of Bordeaux, Montpellier, and Paris, Gide was an expert on international monetary problems. He also played an...

(Encyclopedia) functionalism, in art and architecture, an aesthetic doctrine developed in the early 20th cent. out of Louis Henry Sullivan's aphorism that form ever follows function. Functionalist architects and art...

(Encyclopedia) Lissitzky, El (Eliezer Markovich Lissitzky) lyĭsyētsˈkē [key], 1890–1941, Russian painter, designer, teacher, and architect. Lissitzky studied at Darmstadt and later taught at the Moscow Academy...

(Encyclopedia) anthem [ultimately from antiphon], short nonliturgical choral composition used in Protestant services, usually accompanied and having an English text. The term is used in a broader sense for “nation...

(Encyclopedia) Jackson, Jesse Louis, 1941–, African-American political leader, clergyman, and civil-rights activist, b. Greenville, S.C. Raised in poverty, he attended the Chicago Theological Seminary (1963–65) ...

(Encyclopedia) Hemings, Sally, 1773–1835, African-American slave owned by Thomas Jefferson, b. Charles City co., Va.; her original name was probably Sarah. Her father was John Wayles, Jefferson's father-in-law; he...

(Encyclopedia) Kandy kănˈdē [key], city (1995 est. pop. 108,000), capital of Central prov., Sri Lanka, on the Kandy Plateau. Once the capital of the Sinhalese Kandyan kingdom, it is now a mountain resort and mark...