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Fitch, John

(Encyclopedia)Fitch, John, 1743–98, American inventor, b. Windsor, Conn. Fitch began (1785) work on the invention of the steam engine and steamboat and secured soon afterward the exclusive right to build and oper...

Evans, John

(Encyclopedia)Evans, John, 1814–97, American founder of educational institutions, b. Waynesville, Ohio, grad. Lynn Medical College, Cincinnati, 1838. He practiced medicine in Indiana and was the first superintend...

Evelyn, John

(Encyclopedia)Evelyn, John ēvˈəlĭn, ĕvˈlĭn [key], 1620–1706, English diarist and miscellaneous writer. Although of royalist sympathies, he took little active part in the civil war. After 1652 he lived as a...

Fell, John

(Encyclopedia)Fell, John, 1625–86, English clergyman. He was dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and bishop of Oxford. While at Oxford, he initiated an extensive building program and promoted the development of the Ox...

Eliot, John

(Encyclopedia)Eliot, John, 1604–90, English missionary in colonial Massachusetts, called the Apostle to the Indians. Educated at Cambridge, he was influenced by Thomas Hooker, became a staunch Puritan, and emigra...

Elmer, John

(Encyclopedia)Elmer, John: see Aylmer, John. ...

Elway, John

(Encyclopedia)Elway, John, 1960–, American football player, b. Port Angeles, Wash. An All-American quarterback at Stanford, he played his entire National Football League career (1983–99) with the Denver Broncos...

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. ...

Foxe, John

(Encyclopedia)Foxe, John, 1516–87, English clergyman, author of the noted Book of Martyrs. He early became a Protestant and, when Mary Tudor became queen, he fled from England to Strasbourg. There was printed (15...

Irving, John

(Encyclopedia)Irving, John, 1942–, American writer, b. Exeter, N.H. His mixture of wild plot strategies and eccentric characters brought him to wide attention with his fourth novel, The World According to Garp (1...