Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cleland, John

(Encyclopedia)Cleland, John, 1709–87, English novelist. His Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1750), commonly known as Fanny Hill, was an immediate popular success; the novel's notoriety led to a number of official...

Clerides, Glafkos John

(Encyclopedia)Clerides, Glafkos John gläfˈkōs, klārēˈᵺēs [key], 1919–2013, Greek Cypriot political leader. A pilot in Britain's Royal Air Force in World War II, Clerides was shot down (1942) and held in ...

Rolfe, John

(Encyclopedia)Rolfe, John rŏlf [key], 1585–1622, English colonist in Virginia. He reached the colony in May, 1610, and introduced (1612) the regular cultivation of tobacco, which became Virginia's staple. A wido...

Crowne, John

(Encyclopedia)Crowne, John, c.1640–c.1703, English playwright. The favorite playwright of Charles II, he is remembered for several rather mediocre comedies. Crowne was influenced by the French tradition, particul...

Huss, John

(Encyclopedia)Huss, John yän ho͝os [key], 1369?–1415, Czech religious reformer. At the invitation of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, who granted him a safe-conduct, Huss presented himself in 1414 at the Council...

Wines, Enoch Cobb

(Encyclopedia)Wines, Enoch Cobb, 1806–79, American clergyman and prison reformer, b. Hanover, N.J. After a varied career as a schoolmaster and preacher he became (1861) secretary of the Prison Association of New ...

Taverner, John

(Encyclopedia)Taverner, John, c.1495–1545, English organist and composer. He was choirmaster at Oxford from 1526 to 1530. His small body of work—eight masses, 28 motets, and three secular songs—may be conside...

Bradshaw, John

(Encyclopedia)Bradshaw, John, 1602–59, English regicide judge. In 1649 he was made president of the parliamentary commission to try Charles I, other lawyers of greater prominence having refused the position. For ...

Forster, John

(Encyclopedia)Forster, John, 1812–76, English biographer and critic. He was influential as literary and dramatic critic of the London Examiner. His Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth (5 vol., 1836–39) e...

Speed, John

(Encyclopedia)Speed, John, 1552?–1629, English historian and cartographer. He abandoned his trade as a tailor to engage in mapmaking. Many of his maps of parts of England and Wales were published in The Theatre o...