Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Dollond, John dŏlˈənd [key], 1706–61, English optician and inventor. A silk weaver, he taught himself languages, mathematics, and science, becoming a noted scholar as well as a scientist. He inve...

(Encyclopedia) Wolcot, John wo͝olˈkət [key], pseud. Peter Pindar, 1738–1819, English poet. He wrote several satires, notably Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians (1782–83), Bozzy and Piozzi (1786), and The Lo...

(Encyclopedia) Peele, George, 1558?–1597?, English playwright, educated at Oxford. He experimented in a variety of forms, including the pageant, history, pastoral, comedy, and melodrama, but his best-known work is...

(Encyclopedia) Morgan, George, 1743–1810, American merchant, Indian agent, and land speculator, b. Philadelphia. In 1765 he went as his firm's representative to engage in the fur trade in Illinois, but the venture...

(Encyclopedia) Sonneck, Oscar George Theodore sŭnˈĕk [key], 1873–1928, American musicologist, b. Jersey City, N.J., educated in Germany. As chief (1902–17) of the music division of the Library of Congress, he...

(Encyclopedia) McCrae, John məkrāˈ [key], 1872–1918, Canadian physician and poet. His famous poem “In Flanders Fields,” written under fire during World War I, was published anonymously in Punch in 1915 and ...

(Encyclopedia) Wilbye, John wĭlˈbē [key], 1574–1638, English madrigal composer. Although only two sets of his madrigals (1598, 1609) are extant, their excellence distinguishes him as perhaps the greatest Englis...

(Encyclopedia) Gauden, John gôˈdən [key], 1605–62, English clergyman. He claimed to have written the Eikon Basilike (1649), a tract in defense of Charles I. After the Restoration, Gauden was bishop of Exeter (1...

(Encyclopedia) Slidell, John slīdĕlˈ, slīˈdəl [key], 1793–1871, American political leader and diplomat, b. New York City. He became a prominent lawyer and political figure in New Orleans and served as a Demo...

(Encyclopedia) Moore, George Foot, 1851–1931, American biblical scholar, b. West Chester, Pa. In 1878 he was ordained in the Presbyterian ministry. He was professor of Hebrew (1883–1902) at Andover Theological S...