Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bemelmans, Ludwig, 1898–1962 American author and illustrator of children's books, b. Meran, Austria-Hungary (now in Italy), to Belgian and German parents. Trained in the hotel and restaurant busines...

(Encyclopedia) Czech literature, literary works that constitute part of the Czech culture and, except for some early compositions written in liturgical languages, is in the Czech language. After 1890 realism gaine...

(Encyclopedia) David and Lucile Packard Foundation, private philanthropic institution that funds nonprofit organizations. It was founded in 1964 by David Packard (1912–96), co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., and h...

(Encyclopedia) Georgian literature. Early Georgian literature shows the influence of two distinctly different civilizations—medieval Eastern Orthodox Christianity and, later, Persia. The Passion of St. Shushanik, ...

(Encyclopedia) Half-Way Covenant, a doctrinal decision of the Congregational churches in New England. The first generation of Congregationalists had decided that only adults with personal experience of conversion we...

(Encyclopedia) illustration, any type of picture or decoration used in conjunction with a text to embellish its appearance or to clarify its meaning. Illustration is as old as writing, with both originating in the p...

(Encyclopedia) Breton literature brĕtˈən [key], in the Celtic language of Brittany. Although there are numerous allusions in other literatures of the 12th to 14th cent. to the “matter of Brittany,” which incl...

(Encyclopedia) Cornish literature. The literature of the Celtic language of Cornwall, which has been spoken only by bilingual speakers since the late 18th cent. The surviving pre-1800 literature consists largely of ...

(Encyclopedia) Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock krāk [key], 1826–87, English author. She is best known for the moralistic novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1856) and for the children's classics The Adventures of a Brownie ...

(Encyclopedia) Paine, Albert Bigelow, 1861–1937, American author, b. New Bedford, Mass. He is best remembered as the author of the authorized biography of Mark Twain (3 vol., 1912) and as the editor of Twain's let...