Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Martin, Paul Edgar Philippe, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Paul Edgar Philippe, Jr., 1938–, Canadian politician, prime minister (2003–6) of Canada, b. Windsor, Ont. The scion of a politically active family (his father served in parliament and ran ...

Eastwood, Clint

(Encyclopedia)Eastwood, Clint (Clinton Eastwood, Jr.), 1930–, American actor and director, b. San Francisco. Eastwood, who began his acting career in 1955, came to public attention in the TV Western Rawhide and i...

Mooney, Thomas J.

(Encyclopedia)Mooney, Thomas J., 1883–1942, American labor agitator, b. Chicago. He was an active leader in several violent labor struggles in California before 1916 and was convicted as a participant in the bomb...

Federal Bureau of Investigation

(Encyclopedia)Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice charged with investigating all violations of federal laws except those assigned to some other federal agency. The FBI has j...

Wilson, J. Tuzo

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, J. Tuzo (John Tuzo Wilson), 1908–93, Canadian geologist and geophysicist, b. Ottawa, Ph.D. Princeton (1936), M.A. Cambridge (1940). He worked for the Geological Survey of Canada (1936–39) ...

Priestley, J. B.

(Encyclopedia)Priestley, J. B. (John Boynton Priestley), 1894–1984, English author. An extraordinarily prolific writer, Priestley worked in a variety of genres. He first wrote literary criticism as a student at C...

McClatchy, J. D.

(Encyclopedia)McClatchy, J. D. (Joseph Donald McClatchy, Jr.), 1945–2018, American poet, b. Bryn Mawr, Pa., B.A. Georgetown Univ., 1967, Ph.D. Yale, 1974. His first collection of poems, Scenes from Another Life (...

Donleavy, J. P.

(Encyclopedia)Donleavy, J. P. (James Patrick Donleavy), 1926–2017, Irish-American novelist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied Trinity College, Dublin. The son of Irish expatriates, he lived most of his life in Ireland a...

Tolkien, J. R. R.

(Encyclopedia)Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel Tolkien) tälˈkēn, tōlˈ– [key], 1892–1973, British novelist, b. South Africa. A fantasy writer and Oxford don, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit (1937), adapted fro...

Walker, Madam C. J.

(Encyclopedia)Walker, Madam C. J., 1867–1919, African-American entrepeneur, b. Delta, La., as Sarah Breedlove. Thought to be America's first black female millionaire, this daughter of ex-slaves was orphaned at 7,...