Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wekerle, Alexander vĕˈkĕrlĕ [key], 1848–1921, Hungarian premier. He became minister of finance in 1889 and retained that post during his first two terms as premier (1892–95, 1906–10). In his...

(Encyclopedia) purification, in religion, the ceremonial removal of what the religion deems unclean. The usual agents of purification are water (as in baptism), bodily alteration (as in circumcision), and fire. The ...

(Encyclopedia) Pyramus and Thisbe pĭrˈəməs, thĭzˈbē [key], in classical mythology, youth and maiden of Babylon, whose parents opposed their marriage. Their homes adjoined, and they conversed through a crevice...

(Encyclopedia) Bécquer, Gustavo Adolfo go͞ostäˈvō ädôlˈfō bāˈkĕr [key], 1836–70, Spanish poet and writer of romantic tales. Bécquer's work is considered to be among the best 19th-century lyric poetry....

(Encyclopedia) Tyler, Anne, 1941–, American novelist, b. Minneapolis. Her witty and perceptive fiction, which is often set in the American South and frequently in and around Baltimore, portrays vivid contemporary ...

(Encyclopedia) Sackville-West, Vita (Victoria Mary Sackville-West), 1892–1962, English writer; wife of Sir Harold Nicolson and granddaughter of the 2d Baron Sackville. Both she and Nicolson were members of the Blo...

(Encyclopedia) Schlafly, Phyllis shlăfˈlē [key], 1924–2016, American conservative activist, b. St. Louis, Mo., as Phyllis McAlpin Stewart, grad. Washington Univ. (B.A. 1944, J.D. 1978), Harvard (M.A. 1945). A R...

(Encyclopedia) Portland, William Bentinck, 1st earl of, 1649–1709, Dutch statesman in England. He was William III's most trusted personal adviser. In 1677 he engaged in negotiating the marriage of William (then pr...

(Encyclopedia) Alphonse älfôNsˈ [key], 1220–71, count of Poitiers and of Toulouse, brother of King Louis IX of France. By his marriage to the daughter of Raymond VII, count of Toulouse, he inherited Raymond's l...

(Encyclopedia) Ellis, Havelock (Henry Havelock Ellis), 1859–1939, English psychologist and author. He became a qualified physician but devoted himself to scientific study and writing. Although the first volume of ...