Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hagar āˈgər [key], according to the Book of Genesis, servant of Abraham's wife Sarah and mother of his eldest son, Ishmael. She and her son were sent out into the wilderness because of Sarah's jeal...

(Encyclopedia) Bremer, Fredrika frĕdrēˈkə brāˈmər [key], 1801–65, Swedish writer and feminist, b. Finland. Her novels of everyday life include The H Family (1829), The President's Daughters (1834), and The ...

(Encyclopedia) Troas trōˈăd [key], region about ancient Troy, on the northwest coast of Asia Minor, in present NW Turkey. Traversed by Mt. Ida (Kaz Daği) and strategically located on the Hellespont (Dardanelles)...

(Encyclopedia) McDonald Observatory, astronomical observatory located on Mt. Locke, near Fort Davis, Tex.; founded in 1932, sponsored by the Univ. of Texas in cooperation with the Univ. of Chicago. Its equipment inc...

(Encyclopedia) Saxo Grammaticus săkˈsō grəmătˈĭkəs [key], c.1150–c.1220, the first important Danish historian. He was in the service of Absalon, archbishop of Lund, at whose suggestion Saxo wrote the Gesta...

(Encyclopedia) Spalatin, George shpäˈlätēn [key], 1484–1545, German Protestant reformer. His original name was Georg Burckhardt; he was called Spalatin after his birthplace, Spalt, near Nuremberg. An early fri...

(Encyclopedia) Laocoön lāŏkˈōŏn [key], in Greek mythology, priest of Apollo who warned the Trojans not to touch the wooden horse made by the Greeks during the Trojan War. While he and his two sons were sacrifi...

(Encyclopedia) Díaz del Castillo, Bernal bārnälˈ dēˈäth dĕl kästēˈlyō [key], c.1492–1581, Spanish conquistador and chronicler. He had served in the New World under various commanders—Pedro Arias de �...

(Encyclopedia) soliloquy, the speech by a character in a literary composition, usually a play, delivered while the speaker is either alone addressing the audience directly or the other actors are silent. It is most ...

(Encyclopedia) Szewińska, Irena, 1946–2018, Polish sprinter and long jumper, b. Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia) as Irena Kirszenstein, grad. Univ. of Warsaw, 1970. In her first Olympics (1964), she won sil...