Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Johnson, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Jack (John Arthur Johnson), 1878–1946, American boxer, b. Galveston, Tex., the son of two ex-slaves. Emerging from the battle royals (dehumanizing fights between blacks for the amusement of...

Nicholson, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Nicholson, Jack, 1937–, American film actor, b. Neptune, N.J. After appearing in a series of low-budget movies for some 10 years, he scored his first success with Easy Rider (1969). One of Hollywood...

Kramer, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Kramer, Jack (John Albert Kramer), 1921–2009, American tennis player, b. Las Vegas, Nev. He excelled at tennis while still in high school. Kramer and Frederick (Ted) Schroeder won the U.S. national ...

Lynch, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Lynch, Jack (John Mary Lynch), 1917–99, Irish statesman. Before he embarked on his political career, he gained nationwide fame as an athlete, captaining several winning hurling teams in the 1930s an...

Ma, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Ma, Jack, 1964–, Chinese business executive and on-line retailing pioneer, whose Chinese name is Ma Yun mä yün [key]. He taught English at Hangzhou Institute of Electronics and Engineering (now Ha...

Layton, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Layton, Jack (John Gilbert Layton), 1950–2011, Canadian political leader, grad. McGill Univ. (B.A., 1970), York Univ. (M.A., 1971; Ph.D., 1983). A social democrat from a political family, he served ...

Levine, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Levine, Jack ləvīnˈ [key], 1915–2010, American painter, b. Boston. Levine began his career with the Federal Arts Project. His savagely realistic paintings, executed with diffused, prismatic textu...

Lew, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Lew, Jack (Jacob Joseph Lew), 1955–, American government official, b. New York City, grad. Harvard (1978), Georgetown Univ. Law School (1983). A Democrat, he first worked politics at 17 in Eugene Mc...

Kerouac, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Kerouac, Jack (John Kerouac) kĕrˈəwăkˌ [key], 1922–69, American novelist, b. Lowell, Mass., studied at Columbia. One of the leaders of the beat generation, a term he is said to have coined, he ...

Browse by Subject