Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rackham, Arthur răkˈəm [key], 1867–1939, English illustrator and watercolorist. He is known for imaginative, delicately colored, and cheerful pen drawings, especially for children's books. Among ...

(Encyclopedia) Montessori, Maria märēˈä mōntās-sôˈrē [key], 1870–1952, Italian educator and physician. She was the originator of the Montessori method of education for young children and was the first wom...

(Encyclopedia) Portuguese literature, writings in Portuguese. The literature of Brazil is considered separately (see Brazilian literature). The modern period in Portuguese letters dates from the establishment o...

(Encyclopedia) Williams, John, 1664–1729, American clergyman, b. Roxbury, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1683. In 1686 he became the first minister at Deerfield, Mass. During the great Native American massacre at that fron...

(Encyclopedia) Tan, Amy, 1952–, American novelist, b. Oakland, Calif. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she has taken for her theme the lives of Asian-Americans and the generational and cultural differences amon...

(Encyclopedia) Danish literature, the literature of Denmark. By 1900 a lyrical reaction was being led by the poet J. J. Jørgensen; impressionistic themes became important, but were never the sole fruit of Danish ...

(Encyclopedia) Stockton, Francis Richard (Frank R. Stockton), 1834–1902, American humorist and story writer, b. Philadelphia. He wrote several children's books including Ting-a-Ling (1870) and The Floating Prince ...

(Encyclopedia) Lang, Andrew, 1844–1912, English scholar and man of letters, b. Scotland. His poetry, much of it written in the forms of ballades, triolets, and rondeaux, appeared in such volumes as his Ballads in ...

(Encyclopedia) Armenian literature. The Armenian Church fostered literature, and the principal early works are religious or hagiographical, most of them translations. The first major Armenian literary work is a 5th ...

(Encyclopedia) family, a basic unit of social structure, the exact definition of which can vary greatly from time to time and from culture to culture. How a society defines family as a primary group, and the functio...