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Gosson, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Gosson, Stephen gŏsˈĭn [key], 1554–1624, English writer, b. Canterbury, grad. Oxford, 1576. He wrote three plays, all of which are lost and none of which seems to have been successful. He is best...

Johnson, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Thomas, 1732–1819, American political leader, b. Calvert co., Md. A lawyer, he served (1762–73) in the Maryland colonial assembly, where he became prominent in the fight against the Stamp...

Johnson, Denis

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Denis, 1949–2017, American writer, b. Munich, Germany, where his father was a diplomat; B.A. Univ. of Iowa, 1971, M.F.A. Iowa Writers' Workshop, 1974. Years of drinking and taking drugs end...

Johnson, Magic

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Magic (Earvin Johnson, Jr.), 1959–, African-American basketball player, b. Lansing, Mich. After winning the national championship with Michigan State Univ. (1979), he joined the Los Angeles...

Kearny, Stephen Watts

(Encyclopedia)Kearny, Stephen Watts kärˈnē [key], 1794–1848, American general in the Mexican War, b. Newark, N.J. At the beginning of the Mexican War he was made commander of the Army of the West with the rank...

Johnson, Eastman

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Eastman, 1824–1906, American portrait and genre painter, b. Lovell, Maine. He studied with a lithographer in Boston and later in Düsseldorf, then for almost four years at The Hague, where ...

Towton Field

(Encyclopedia)Towton Field touˈtən [key], North Yorkshire, N England, near Tadcaster. It was the scene (1461) of a bloody and decisive battle in which the forces of Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians. See Roses,...

Zápolya, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Zápolya, Stephen zäˈpôlyŏ [key], d. 1499, palatine (regent) of Hungary (1492–99), of a noble Hungarian family. An able general of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, he fought against the Ottoma...

Field, Eugene

(Encyclopedia)Field, Eugene, 1850–95, American poet and journalist, b. St. Louis. After working on several Midwestern newspapers, in 1883 he became a columnist for the Chicago Daily News (later the Record). His u...

Johnson grass

(Encyclopedia)Johnson grass: see sorghum.