Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Noel-Baker, Philip John Noel-Baker, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Noel-Baker, Philip John Noel-Baker, Baron, 1889–1982, British statesman, b. Philip John Baker. After helping to draft (1919) the Covenant of the League of Nations, he served (1929–31, 1936–70) a...

Bartlett, John

(Encyclopedia)Bartlett, John, 1820–1905, American compiler and publisher, b. Plymouth, Mass. While he worked in his university book store in Cambridge, he compiled the invaluable Familiar Quotations (1855), which...

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...

Philips, John

(Encyclopedia)Philips, John, 1676–1709, English poet. He was one of the few to write in blank verse in an age when the heroic couplet was the standard form. His Splendid Shilling (1701, 1705) is a parody of Milto...

Playfair, John

(Encyclopedia)Playfair, John, 1748–1819, Scottish mathematician, physicist, and geologist. He was educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh and taught first mathematics and then physics and astronomy at the latter un...

Wilbur, John

(Encyclopedia)Wilbur, John, 1774–1856, American Quaker leader, b. Hopkinton, R.I. He became the leader of the opposition to the evangelical principles of J. J. Gurney and Elias Hicks, and his expulsion (1843) by ...

Lyly, John

(Encyclopedia)Lyly or Lilly, John both: lĭlˈē [key], 1554?–1606, English dramatist and prose writer. An accomplished courtier, he also served as a member of Parliament from 1589 to 1601. His Euphues, published...

Colter, John

(Encyclopedia)Colter, John kōlˈtər [key], c.1775–1813, American trapper and guide, b. Virginia. In 1803 he enlisted in the Lewis and Clark expedition and in 1806, on the return trip, was granted a discharge to...

Vanderlyn, John

(Encyclopedia)Vanderlyn, John vănˈdərlĭn [key], 1776–1852, American portrait and historical painter, b. Kingston, N.Y. Under the patronage of Aaron Burr he studied with Gilbert Stuart and in Paris. From 1796 ...

Fowles, John

(Encyclopedia)Fowles, John, 1926–2005, English writer, b. Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, grad. Oxford, 1950. A complex, cerebral writer and a superb storyteller, Fowles was interested in manipulating the novel as a genre. ...