Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Baskerville, John

(Encyclopedia)Baskerville, John băsˈkərvĭlˌ [key], 1706–75, English designer of type and printer. He and Caslon were the two great type designers of the 18th cent. in England. He began his work as printer an...

Bartram, John

(Encyclopedia)Bartram, John bärˈtrəm [key], 1699–1777, pioneer American botanist, b. near Darby, Pa. He had no formal schooling but possessed a keen mind and a great interest in plants. In 1728 he purchased la...

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...

Pearson, John

(Encyclopedia)Pearson, John, 1613–86, English prelate and scholar. He was a royalist chaplain (1645) in the civil war, but during Cromwell's regime he lived quietly in London. His Exposition of the Creed (1659), ...

Penry, John

(Encyclopedia)Penry, John, 1559–93, British Puritan author, an instigator of the Marprelate controversy, b. Wales, grad. Cambridge and Oxford. While at college he became an ardent Puritan. In 1587 his pamphlet as...

Pope, John

(Encyclopedia)Pope, John, 1822–92, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Louisville, Ky. He fought with distinction at Monterrey and Buena Vista in the Mexican War and later served with the topographical en...

Pitcairn, John

(Encyclopedia)Pitcairn, John pĭtˈkârn [key], 1722–75, British royal marine officer in the American Revolution. Major Pitcairn commanded the advance guard of the British troops at Lexington (see Lexington and C...

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...

Powell, John

(Encyclopedia)Powell, John, 1882–1963, American pianist and composer, b. Richmond, Va., grad. Univ. of Virginian, 1901. In Vienna he studied piano and composition and in 1908 made his debut as a pianist in Berlin...

Prester John

(Encyclopedia)Prester John, legendary Christian priest and monarch of a vast, wealthy empire in Asia or in Africa. The legend first appeared in the latter part of the 12th cent. and persisted for several centuries....