Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Williams, Roger John, 1893–1988, American chemist, b. India, grad. Univ. of Redlands, Redlands, Calif. (B.S., 1914), Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1919; brother of the chemist Robert R. Williams, Jr. He t...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, John, 1800–1859, American abolitionist, b. Torrington, Conn. He spent his boyhood in Ohio. Before he became prominent in the 1850s, his life ha...

(Encyclopedia) De Palma, Brian, 1940–, American film director, b. Newark, N.J. Heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, he is especially known for bloody, shocking, and suspenseful thrillers. Sometimes accused of v...

(Encyclopedia) Donner, Richard, 1930-2021, American film director, b. Bronx, N.Y., as Richard Donald Schwartzberg. Donner came from a Russian, Jewish immigrant family....

(Encyclopedia) Drinkwater, John, 1882–1937, English author. A founder of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, he was associated with it as actor, director, and general manager for many years. He is best known for his...

(Encyclopedia) Sayles, John (John Thomas Sayles), 1950–, one of America's most influential independent filmmakers as well as a screenwriter, fiction writer, playwright, and actor, b. Schenectady, N.Y., grad. Willi...

(Encyclopedia) Astor, John Jacob, 1864–1912, American financier, b. Rhinebeck, N.Y.; son of William Backhouse Astor (1829–92). He served in the Spanish-American War. Drowned in the Titanic disaster, he left two ...

(Encyclopedia) Armstrong, John, 1717?–1795, American pioneer, known as the “hero of Kittanning,” b. Co. Fermanagh, Ireland. He laid out the town of Carlisle, Pa. In 1756 he led the expedition that destroyed Ki...

(Encyclopedia) Lee, Spike (Shelton Jackson Lee), 1957–, African-American filmmaker, b. Atlanta, Ga. As a student at New York Univ., he won recognition with his gradu...

(Encyclopedia) Korngold, Erich Wolfgang, 1897–1957, American composer of film and concert music and opera, b. Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic). He began composing ballet music and operas in his t...