Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gregg, William

(Encyclopedia)Gregg, William, 1800–1867, American industrialist, known as the “father of Southern cotton manufacture,” b. Monongalia co., Va. (now W.Va.). He devoted his life to building up Southern industry....

Grocyn, William

(Encyclopedia)Grocyn, William grōˈsĭn [key], 1446?–1519, English humanist. An associate of John Colet and Thomas Linacre, he reputedly introduced the teaching of Greek at Oxford. ...

Gropper, William

(Encyclopedia)Gropper, William, 1897–1977, American painter and cartoonist, b. New York City. Gropper studied painting under Henri and Bellows. Employed as cartoonist by the New York Tribune, he went to work for ...

Goffe, William

(Encyclopedia)Goffe, William gôf [key], d. c.1679, English soldier and regicide. A personal adherent of Oliver Cromwell, he fought in the English civil war, signed the death warrant of Charles I, and became an adm...

Golding, William

(Encyclopedia)Golding, William (Sir William Gerald Golding), 1911–93, English novelist, grad. Oxford (B.A. 1934). Praised for his highly imaginative and original writings, Golding was basically concerned with the...

Goodell, William

(Encyclopedia)Goodell, William go͝odĕlˈ [key], 1792–1867, American missionary in the Middle East, b. Templeton, Mass. He went in 1823, for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to what is n...

Gibson, William

(Encyclopedia)Gibson, William, 1948–, Canadian science fiction writer, b. Conway, S.C., moved to Canada in the 1960s. He first published short stories in sci-fi magazines; many are collected in Burning Chrome (19...

Gifford, William

(Encyclopedia)Gifford, William, 1756–1826, English journalist and critic. He was editor (1797–98) of the Anti-Jacobin and first editor (1809–24) of the archconservative Quarterly Review. Although perceptive, ...

Gilbert, William

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, William, 1544–1603, English scientist and physician. He studied medicine at Cambridge (M.D., 1569), where he was elected a Fellow of St. John's College, and set up practice in London, becom...

Gillette, William

(Encyclopedia)Gillette, William jəlĕtˈ [key], 1853–1937, American actor and dramatist, b. Hartford, Conn. His New York debut in Mark Twain's Gilded Age (1877) was shortly followed by his own first play, The Pr...