(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…
(Encyclopedia) Selden, John, 1584–1654, English jurist and scholar. He studied at Oxford, was called to the bar in 1612, and was elected to Parliament in 1623. He had already assisted in preparing…
(Encyclopedia) Sevier, JohnSevier, Johnsəvērˈ [key], 1745–1815, American frontiersman and political leader. He was born near the site of New Market, Va., the town he founded in his young manhood. In…
(Encyclopedia) Barry, John, 1745–1803, U.S. naval officer in the American Revolution, b. Co. Wexford, Ireland. He went as a youth to Philadelphia, where he was a trader and a shipmaster. In the…
(Encyclopedia) Sherman, John, 1823–1900, American statesman, b. Lancaster, Ohio; brother of William Tecumseh Sherman. He studied law, was admitted (1844) to the bar, and practiced law several years…
(Encyclopedia) Barth, JohnBarth, Johnbärth [key], 1930–, American writer, b. Cambridge, Md. He attended Johns Hopkins (B.A. 1951, M.A. 1952), and, beginning in 1973, taught writing at its graduate…
(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…
(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…
(Encyclopedia) Ruskin, John, 1819–1900, English critic and social theorist. During the mid-19th cent. Ruskin was the virtual dictator of artistic opinion in England, but Ruskin's reputation declined…
(Encyclopedia) Banville, John, 1945–, Irish novelist. His novels, which stress language over plot and narrative, are written in a dense, elaborate, and highly original blend of poetry and prose. They…
