Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

James, P. D.

(Encyclopedia)James, P. D. (Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park), 1920–2014, English mystery novelist, b. Oxford. From 1964 to 1979 she worked in the forensic science and criminal law divi...

James Bay Project

(Encyclopedia)James Bay Project, a colossal hydroelectric development of the rivers emptying into the E James Bay, central Quebec, Canada. La Grande Phase I, finished in 1985, created the world's largest undergroun...

Jarves, James Jackson

(Encyclopedia)Jarves, James Jackson järˈvĭs [key], 1818–88, American art critic and art collector, b. Boston. He spent some years in Honolulu, where he founded and edited a weekly newspaper, the Polynesia; it ...

Jeffries, James J.

(Encyclopedia)Jeffries, James J., 1875–1953, American boxer, b. Carroll, Fairfield co., Ohio. He began boxing in 1896, and in 1899 he won the heavyweight championship from Robert Fitzsimmons at Coney Island in Ne...

Johnson, James Weldon

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, James Weldon, 1871–1938, American author, b. Jacksonville, Fla., educated at Atlanta Univ. (B.A., 1894) and at Columbia. Johnson was the first African American to be admitted to the Florida...

Maxwell, James Clerk

(Encyclopedia)Maxwell, James Clerk klärk [key], 1831–79, great Scottish physicist. After a brilliant career at Edinburgh and Cambridge, where he won early recognition with mathematical papers, he was a professor...

Meade, James Edward

(Encyclopedia)Meade, James Edward, 1907–95, British economist, studied at Oxford and Cambridge. Strongly influenced by John Maynard Keynes, Meade worked at the League of Nations (1937–40) and was chief economis...

Morrice, James Wilson

(Encyclopedia)Morrice, James Wilson môrˈĭs [key], 1865–1924, Canadian painter, b. Montreal. Abandoning law, he went to Paris, where he studied painting. He visited Venice, Trinidad, Tunis, and periodically ret...

Michener, James Albert

(Encyclopedia)Michener, James Albert mĭchˈnər [key], 1907–97, American author, b. New York City, grad. Swarthmore, 1929. His short-story collection Tales of the South Pacific (1947; Pulitzer Prize) was adapted...

Melville, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Melville, Sir James, 1535–1617, Scottish diplomat. He was a page to Mary Queen of Scots in France and, after her return to Scotland, was employed as Mary's representative at the court of Elizabeth I...