Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) McCormack, John, 1884–1945, Irish-American tenor, b. Athlone, Ireland. He made his debut in London in 1907. In 1909, Oscar Hammerstein brought him to the United States. After his debut in New York C...

(Encyclopedia) Knowles, John, 1926–2001, American writer, b. Fairmont, W. Va., grad. Yale, 1949. He is best known for his semiautobiographical first novel, A Separate Peace (1960), a coming-of-age story about a bo...

(Encyclopedia) Kane, John, 1860–1934, American primitive painter, b. Scotland. He came to Pittsburgh at the age of 19 and worked for years as a day laborer, painting in his spare time. His paintings exhibit a deli...

(Encyclopedia) John Birch Society, ultraconservative, anti-Communist organization in the United States. It was founded in Dec., 1958, by manufacturer Robert Welch, headquartered in Belmont, Mass., and named after Jo...

(Encyclopedia) Lamb, John, 1735–1800, American Revolutionary leader, b. New York City. Prior to the Revolution he was a leader of the Sons of Liberty in New York and helped form the New York committee of correspon...

(Encyclopedia) Wayne, John, 1907–79, American movie actor, b. Winterset, Iowa, as Marion Michael Morrison. An enduringly popular movie star from his debut in 1930, Wayne combined the toughness necessary to play we...

(Encyclopedia) Cartwright, John, 1740–1824, English reformer and pamphleteer; brother of Edmund Cartwright. He had an early career in the navy. He declined to fight the American colonists and wrote American Indepe...

(Encyclopedia) Carrère, John Merven kərârˈ [key], 1858–1911, American architect, b. Rio de Janeiro. After graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, he worked under McKim, Mead, and White in New York Ci...

(Encyclopedia) Papp, Joseph, 1921–91, American theatrical director and producer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. as Joseph Papirofsky. Papp, a major influence in American theater, founded the nonprofit New York Shakespeare Fest...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, John Rosamond, 1873–1954, American composer and singer, b. Jacksonville, Fla. After a career in music halls and light opera in England and on the Continent, Johnson toured Europe and the Un...