Gospel According to John, fourth of the four New Testament narratives recounting the life and death of Jesus Christ. John’s is the only one of the four not considered among the Synoptic Gospels (i.e., those presenting a common view). Although the Gospel is ostensibly written by St. John the

Gwen John was a Welsh painter who was known for her self-portraits, quiet domestic interiors, and portraits of other women and who was until the late 20th century all but lost to history. After the death of her mother, an amateur painter, in 1884, John and her three siblings and father moved to the

Gwen John was a Welsh painter who was known for her self-portraits, quiet domestic interiors, and portraits of other women and who was until the late 20th century all but lost to history. After the death of her mother, an amateur painter, in 1884, John and her three siblings and father moved to the

Letters of John, three New Testament writings, all composed sometime around 100 ce and traditionally attributed to St. John the Apostle, son of Zebedee and disciple of Jesus. The author of the first letter is not identified, but the writer of the second and third calls himself “presbyter” (elder).

Little Willie John was a rhythm-and-blues singer of the 1950s whose vocal style anticipated soul music. John grew up in Detroit, Michigan, sang gospel music, and at age 16 began recording rhythm and blues for King Records. He introduced “Fever” (1956), which became a standard; “Talk to Me, Talk to

Dominica: Independence of Dominica: …Dominica achieved full independence, with Patrick Roland John as its first prime minister. John’s government was implicated in a number of questionable dealings, including a scheme to lease land to a firm allegedly planning to supply petroleum illegally to South Africa, which was then under an international trade embargo because…

Revelation to John, last biblical book of the New Testament. It is the only book of the New Testament classified as apocalyptic literature rather than didactic or historical, indicating thereby its extensive use of visions, symbols, and allegory, especially in connection with future events.

St. John the Apostle ; Western feast day December 27; Eastern feast days May 8 and September 26) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and traditionally believed to be the author of the three Letters of John, the Fourth Gospel, and possibly the Revelation to John in the New Testament. He played a

Elton John is a British singer, composer, and pianist who became one of the most popular entertainers of the late 20th century with such indelible hit songs as “Rocket Man,” “Crocodile Rock,” and “Candle in the Wind.” He fused as many strands of popular music and stylistic showmanship as Elvis

Tommy John surgery: Origins: …surgeon Frank Jobe on pitcher Tommy John, who was playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. At that time, elbow soreness and subsequent surgery often meant the end of a baseball pitcher’s career. When Jobe examined John’s throwing arm, he noticed that the UCL was simply absent. Because the UCL connects…

Little Willie John was a rhythm-and-blues singer of the 1950s whose vocal style anticipated soul music. John grew up in Detroit, Michigan, sang gospel music, and at age 16 began recording rhythm and blues for King Records. He introduced “Fever” (1956), which became a standard; “Talk to Me, Talk to

Johne’s disease, serious infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis. Although principally a disease of cattle, it can affect sheep, deer, and goats, and it occurs worldwide. Cows may not show signs of the disease for as long as a year after exposure to it. Chronic diarrhea

David Malouf: …first novel was the autobiographical Johnno (1975), set in Brisbane during World War II. An Imaginary Life (1978) re-creates the final years of the Roman poet Ovid. Child’s Play (1981) concerns the metaphysical relationship between a professional assassin and his intended victim. The novella Fly Away Peter (1982) is set…

instrumentals: …music to another level; and Johnny and the Hurricanes, best remembered for “Crossfire” (1959), left their mark on the Beatles, with whom they gigged on the in Hamburg, West Germany.

Claire Trevor: Among Trevor’s later films were Johnny Angel (1945); The High and the Mighty (1954), for which she received her third Oscar nomination; Marjorie Morningstar (1958); How to Murder Your Wife (1965); and Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), her final film. Trevor occasionally returned to the stage, and she also made a…

Henry Hathaway: Early work: Johnny Apollo (1940) offered a less-exotic locale, but Hathaway turned this familiar saga of a good man (played by Tyrone Power) gone wrong into one of the year’s better crime pictures. Power returned for Brigham Young (1940), a biopic about the Mormon leader.

Chuck Berry: …came when his song “Johnny B. Goode” was among the pieces of music placed on a gold-plated copper phonograph record that was attached to the side of the Voyager 1 space probe and sent hurtling through outer space in order to give distant or future civilizations a chance to…

Jean Negulesco: Film noirs and Johnny Belinda: …next film, the 1948 drama Johnny Belinda, was perhaps his greatest triumph. It starred Jane Wyman in an Oscar-winning performance as a deaf Canadian farm girl who is raped, finds she is pregnant, and bonds with a sensitive doctor (Lew Ayres). A major box-office success, the film was nominated for…

Cartoon Network: History: classics, including Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and Powerpuff Girls. The combination of classic reruns and original programming was wildly successful; in 1994 Cartoon Network became the fifth most popular cable channel in the United States, and in 1995 the network had 22 million subscribers.

Johnny Cash: …Cash’s turnaround was the album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968), which was recorded live in front of an audience of some 2,000 inmates at California’s Folsom Prison. The performance was regarded as a risky move by record company executives, but it proved to be the perfect opportunity for Cash…

Johnny Cash: …that album and its follow-up, Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969), to focus attention on the living conditions of inmates in American prisons, and he became a vocal champion for penal reform and social justice. Live appearances in New York and London and his television show,“The Johnny Cash Show” (1969–71),…

Maybelle Carter: A folk and country music legend: …regularly on television on the Johnny Cash Show (her daughter June married Cash in 1968) and to perform to appreciative audiences across the country and in Europe.

Michael Keaton: Comedy hits: Night Shift, Mr. Mom, and Beetlejuice: Mom (1983), Johnny Dangerously (1984), Gung Ho (1986), and the Tim Burton horror-comedy Beetlejuice (1988), in which Keaton costarred with Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, and Winona Ryder and appeared in the title role as an obnoxious mischievous ghost.

Lana Turner: … (1942) and Robert Taylor in Johnny Eager (1942). Her most memorable role, however, was that of a murderous adulteress in the film noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Her later box office hits included Vincente Minnelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful (1952); Mark Robson

Gillian Anderson: Films: The House of Mirth and The Last King of Scotland: …Ugandan dictator Idi Amin; and Johnny English Reborn (2011), a spy spoof starring Rowan Atkinson.

Rowan Atkinson: Other work: …Johnny English Reborn (2011) and Johnny English Strikes Again (2018). He was part of the voice cast of the animated Disney blockbuster The Lion King (1994) and appeared in the popular romantic comedy Love Actually (2003). In addition to his comedic work, Atkinson delivered a rare dramatic performance as Inspector

Nicholas Ray: Films of the early 1950s: …project, the perverse Freudian western Johnny Guitar (1954), which some film historians have seen as a commentary on the Joseph McCarthy era of anticommunist hysteria. Shot in highly saturated Trucolor and awash in the sort of hand-wringing melodrama that became Ray’s calling card, Johnny Guitar featured Joan Crawford as a…

Edna O’Brien: Other novels: of Peace (1966), Night (1972), Johnny I Hardly Knew You (1977; U.S. title I Hardly Knew You), The High Road (1988), House of Splendid Isolation (1994), Down by the River (1996), In the Forest (2002), and The Light of Evening (2006). Many of these works examined the social and cultural…

Kurt Weill: for plays, including Paul Green’s Johnny Johnson (1936) and Franz Werfel’s Eternal Road (1937). His operetta Knickerbocker Holiday appeared in 1938 with a libretto by Maxwell Anderson, followed by the musical play Lady in the Dark (1941; libretto and lyrics by Moss Hart and

William Gibson: …of Gibson’s early stories, including Johnny Mnemonic (1981; film 1995) and Burning Chrome (1982), were published in Omni magazine. With the publication of his first novel, Neuromancer (1984), Gibson emerged as a leading exponent of cyberpunk, a new school of science-fiction writing. Cyberpunk combines a cynical, tough “punk” sensibility with…

Ice-T: Acting career, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and other projects: … (1991), Surviving the Game (1994), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and Tank Girl (1995). He also had guest-star roles on many TV shows, including New York Undercover and Batman Beyond. His first reality show, Ice-T’s Rap School, ran for one season on VH1 in 2006.

Sylvia Plath: Other works: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, a book of short stories and prose, was published in 1977.

Roberto Benigni: …as director, writer, and actor, Johnny Stecchino (1991), a Mafia farce, set box-office records in Italy.

Human Torch, fictional superhero. Human Torch was one of the “big three” heroes of Marvel (then known as Timely) Comics, along with Captain America and the Sub-Mariner—and one of the most popular Marvel superheroes of the 1940s. Like the Sub-Mariner, he was first seen on the newsstands in Marvel

Ernst Krenek: …opera Jonny Spielt Auf! (1927; Johnny Strikes up the Band!), a work written in an idiom that mixed Expressionist dissonance with jazz influences and strove to reflect modern life in the 1920s. After a period in which he espoused the Romanticism of Franz Schubert, he began in the 1930s to…

Nick Cave: Film work: …which he also cowrote, and Johnny Suede (1991). Cave was the subject of the documentaries 20,000 Days on Earth (2014) and One More Time with Feeling (2016). He also worked on the scores for both documentaries, the latter of which was nominated for a Grammy.

Robert Stevenson: Films for Disney: First was Johnny Tremain (1957), an adaptation of Esther Forbes’s novel about a youth’s adventures during the American Revolution. Later in 1957 came Old Yeller, a heartbreaking drama based on Fred Gipson’s book about a boy (Tommy Kirk) and his dog in 1850s Texas; his parents were…

children’s literature: Contemporary times: Johnny Tremain (1943), by Esther Forbes, a beautifully written, richly detailed story of the Revolution, stood out as one of the few high points, as did The Innocent Wayfaring (1943), a tale of Chaucer’s England by the equally scholarly Marchette Chute. Poetry for children had…

Johnny Unitas was an American professional gridiron football player who is considered to be one of the all-time greatest National Football League (NFL) quarterbacks. Unitas excelled in football at St. Justin’s High School in Pittsburgh, but his slight stature (he weighed only 145 pounds [66 kg])

In the 1920s Johnny Weissmuller was celebrated as one of the United States’ greatest athletes and an Olympic champion. In 1932 the “King of Swimming” became the “King of the Jungle,” the scantily clad hero of Tarzan, the Ape Man, the first of a long-running popular series of films starring the

Johnny Mathis: Chances Are and other timeless classics: …additional success with the albums Johnny’s Greatest Hits (1958)—believed to be the first-ever compilation of an artist’s previously released hit singles—and the holiday-themed Merry Christmas (1958), both of which sold steadily for years after their release. In the late 1950s he also recorded songs for several movies.

pansy: Major species: The wild pansy (V. tricolor), also known as Johnny-jump-up, heartsease, and love-in-idleness, has been widely naturalized in North America. The flowers of this form are usually purple and yellow and less than 2 cm (0.8 inch) across.

Catonsville, village, Baltimore county, north-central Maryland, U.S., a southwestern suburb of Baltimore. It was founded before 1729 and was known as Johnnycake for a local inn specializing in that type of cornbread. The present name, honouring Richard Caton (who had an estate there in the late

Catonsville: …local inn specializing in that type of cornbread. The present name, honouring Richard Caton (who had an estate there in the late 18th century), was adopted about 1800. A residential community, Catonsville is the seat of Catonsville Community College (1956). The Baltimore county campus (1966) of the University of Maryland…

intelligence test: One such test, the Johns Hopkins Perceptual Test, developed by Leon Rosenberg in the early 1960s to measure the intelligence of preschool children, has a child try to match random forms (ordinary geometric forms, such as circles, squares, and triangles, are avoided because some children may be more familiar…

Johns Hopkins University, privately controlled institution of higher learning in Baltimore, Maryland, that was the first research university in the United States. Based on the German university model, which emphasized specialized training and research, Johns Hopkins University opened primarily as a

Gullah: …communities persist on Wadmalaw and Johns islands (South Carolina) and Sapelo Island (Georgia). During the 20th and 21st centuries groups of Gullahs have gone on “heritage tours” to Sierra Leone, reestablishing long-broken cultural ties.

6 Teenagers Who Made History: Barbara Johns: In 1951 the 16-year-old Barbara Johns initiated a student strike over substandard facilities at her segregated school in Farmville, Virginia. Her activism attracted the attention of two National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) lawyers, who took her case to court…

6 Teenagers Who Made History: Barbara Johns: In 1951 the 16-year-old Barbara Johns initiated a student strike over substandard facilities at her segregated school in Farmville, Virginia. Her activism attracted the attention of two National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) lawyers, who took her case to court…

Let It Be: …hired record producer and engineer Glyn Johns to finish the project. Over the next several months, Johns created four versions of the album, but each was rejected by the band.

Mary Poppins: Plot summary:

Jasper Johns is an American painter and graphic artist who is generally associated with the Pop art movement. Johns studied briefly (1947–48) at the University of South Carolina at Columbia and then moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist. In 1954 he became friends with Robert

Dead of Night: …architect Walter Craig (played by Mervyn Johns) being summoned to a country house on the pretense of acquiring work. Once there he meets several guests, all of whom are familiar to him because of their strange appearance in a recurring dream he has experienced. Each guest then entertains the group…

Johnson & Johnson is the world’s second largest drug and biotechnology company by market capitalization, behind Eli Lilly (LLY) but ahead of other “big pharma” competitors such as AbbVie (ABBV), Novartis (NVS), and Merck (MRK). Once known for household products like Band-Aid and Tylenol, its

Johnson & Johnson is the world’s second largest drug and biotechnology company by market capitalization, behind Eli Lilly (LLY) but ahead of other “big pharma” competitors such as AbbVie (ABBV), Novartis (NVS), and Merck (MRK). Once known for household products like Band-Aid and Tylenol, its

history of Europe: The impact of the slump: …the United States passed the Johnson Act, forbidding even private loans to countries that had not paid their war debts.

Providence: …Nicholas Brown, its principal benefactor), Johnson and Wales University (1914), the Rhode Island School of Design (1877), Rhode Island College (established in 1854 as Rhode Island State Normal School), and Providence College (1917, Roman Catholic). The Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design has collections of American…

Johnson City, city, seat (1890) of Blanco county, south-central Texas, U.S., 40 miles (64 km) west of Austin. The hometown of President Lyndon B. Johnson, it was founded in 1879 by James Polk Johnson, a forebear of the president. Located in the scenic hills of the Pedernales River valley, it is a

Johnson City, city, Washington county, northeastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies in a valley in the southern Appalachian Mountains, about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Knoxville and just west of Elizabethton. The area was settled in the 1760s. Originally a part of North Carolina, it was included in

Jason Momoa: Early life and career: …small part in the comedy Johnson Family Vacation (2004).

Harry Nyquist: …explanation of the unexpectedly strong thermal noise studied by J.B. Johnson. The understanding of noise is of critical importance for communications systems. Thermal noise is sometimes called Johnson noise or Nyquist noise because of their pioneering work in this field.

Houston: History: …Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973), the command post for flights by U.S. astronauts, was opened near Clear Lake, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of downtown, making Houston a focus of the nation’s space program. Houston experienced an economic boom in the 1970s…

Johnson v. Eisentrager, U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruled in 1950 that nonresident enemy aliens do not have the legal right to petition U.S. courts for writs of habeas corpus—a prisoner’s petition requesting that the court determine the legality of his or her incarceration. This

Native American: Removal of the eastern nations: In Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823), the court ruled that European doctrine gave a “discovering” (e.g., colonial) power and its successors the exclusive right to purchase land from aboriginal nations. This ruling removed control of land transactions from the tribes, which had previously been able to sell…

Cornelius Johnson was a Baroque painter, considered the most important native English portraitist of the early 17th century. Johnson was the son of Dutch parents living in London. He was patronized by James I and Charles I but seems to have lost his popularity with the court when Van Dyck went to

freshwater crocodile, (Crocodylus johnsoni), moderately large species of crocodile inhabiting inland swamps, rivers, and other tropical freshwater environments in the northern parts of Queensland, Western Australia, and Australia’s Northern Territory. The species is distinguished from other

Johnson City, city, Washington county, northeastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies in a valley in the southern Appalachian Mountains, about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Knoxville and just west of Elizabethton. The area was settled in the 1760s. Originally a part of North Carolina, it was included in

Most chief executives who lead Wall Street’s largest financial firms have to answer to shareholders, but Abigail Johnson isn’t among them. As chair and chief executive officer of Fidelity Investments, she oversees a privately held company started by her grandfather that has grown into one of the

Alan Johnson is a British Labour Party politician who served as secretary of state for health (2007–09) and home secretary (2009–10) in the cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Orphaned at age 12, Johnson was raised by his older sister in a government housing project. He left school at 15 to

Alan Johnson is a British Labour Party politician who served as secretary of state for health (2007–09) and home secretary (2009–10) in the cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Orphaned at age 12, Johnson was raised by his older sister in a government housing project. He left school at 15 to

theatre: Developments in the United States: …was replaced by that of Albert Johnson—a style characterized by loose colour and calligraphic line that went well with the sharp revues that prevailed until World War II. In staging musicals, a peculiar division persisted between the direction of the plot and comedy segments and that of the production numbers—the…

Boris Johnson is an American-born British journalist and Conservative Party politician who became prime minister of the United Kingdom in July 2019. He left office in September 2022 after being forced by scandal to resign. Earlier he served as the second elected mayor of London (2008–16) and as

Alexander Bryan Johnson was a British-born American philosopher and semanticist who came to the United States as a child of 11 years and made his fortune as a banker in Utica in upstate New York. He also, however, found time to write on a variety of subjects, especially economics, language, and the

yacht: Transatlantic racing and global circumnavigation: …in a 6-metre boat by Alfred Johnson in 1876 to commemorate the centenary of U.S. independence. The first single-handed race in 1891 was won by the American sailor Si Lawlor. A series of single-handed races, sponsored by the London Observer, began in 1960 and was held quadrennially thereafter. It was…

Lonnie Johnson was a prolific American musician, singer, and songwriter who was one of the first major blues and jazz guitarists. One of a large family of musicians, Johnson played violin in his father’s string band, and he also played guitar in New Orleans in the early 20th century. He traveled

Amy Johnson was a pioneering female aviator who first achieved fame as a result of her attempt to set a record for solo flight from London to Darwin, Australia. (Read Orville Wright’s 1929 biography of his brother, Wilbur.) Johnson graduated from the University of Sheffield and began work as a

Houston Texans: …led by dominant wide receiver Andre Johnson and standout quarterback Matt Schaub, the Texans posted the first winning record (9–7) in franchise history. Houston captured its first division title in 2011 after going 10–6 and won its opening-round playoff game before being eliminated by the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional…

Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States (1865–69), who took office upon the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln during the closing months of the American Civil War (1861–65). His lenient Reconstruction policies toward the South embittered the Radical Republicans in Congress

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in: …as Goldie Hawn, Gary Owens, Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, and Henry Gibson, who quickly became household names. The regular performers frequently reprised characters and gave rise to punch lines that became ubiquitous: “You bet your sweet bippy,” “Here come da judge,” “Verrrry interesting,” and “Sock it to me.” The frenetic…

novel: Avant-gardism: In England, B.S. Johnson published similar “false-directional” novels, though the influence of Sterne makes them seem accessible, even cozily traditional. One of Johnson’s books is marketed as a bundle of disjunct chapters—which may thus be dealt aleatorially and read in any order.

Ban Johnson was a U.S. professional baseball administrator and the first president of the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs (1900–27). Johnson attended Oberlin and Marietta colleges in Ohio; he also attended law school in Cincinnati but did not finish the course. He became a reporter

Oklahoma: The arts: …pop vocalist Patti Page, actor Ben Johnson, “singing cowboy” (and actor) Gene Autry, and rock musicians Leon Russell, Dwight Twilley, and the Flaming Lips, not to mention a host of familiar names from the world of country music topped by Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Roger Miller, Hank Thompson,

Seoul 1988 Olympic Games: Canadian Ben Johnson, champion of the 100-meter run, and several weightlifters tested positive for steroid use and were disqualified. In all, 10 athletes were banned from the Games for using performance-enhancing drugs. In the track events the Kenyan men’s team won four of the six distance…

Bernice Johnson Reagon is an African American musician and historian whose work ranged from African spirituals to militant civil rights anthems. Reagon grew up surrounded by the sacred music of her father’s Baptist church. In 1959 she entered Albany State College, where she studied music and first

Beverly Johnson is an American model who in the 1970s was the first Black woman to appear on the cover of numerous fashion magazines, including American Vogue and French Elle. She also acted in films and television shows and built her own luxury brand of fashion and beauty products. In high school

Beverly Johnson is an American model who in the 1970s was the first Black woman to appear on the cover of numerous fashion magazines, including American Vogue and French Elle. She also acted in films and television shows and built her own luxury brand of fashion and beauty products. In high school

Blind Willie Johnson was an American gospel blues singer and guitar player who performed on Southern streets and was noted for the energy and power of his singing and for his ingenious slide guitar accompaniments. Little is known about Johnson’s early life, though a death certificate provided the

Boris Johnson is an American-born British journalist and Conservative Party politician who became prime minister of the United Kingdom in July 2019. He left office in September 2022 after being forced by scandal to resign. Earlier he served as the second elected mayor of London (2008–16) and as

Lost Cause: …the day, former Confederate general Bradley T. Johnson, a popular Southern memorial speaker, took the podium. With the windows of the ornate room festooned with Confederate flags and military relics all around, Johnson launched into a virulent expression of the Lost Cause as racial ideology. He declared secession a sacred…

Brandon Johnson is a former American educator, a Democratic politician, and the 57th mayor of Chicago, a position he has held since 2023. He previously served as an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union and held a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners from 2018 to 2023. Johnson gained

AC/DC: February 21, 1980, London, England), Brian Johnson (b. October 5, 1947, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England), Phil Rudd (original name Phillip Rudzevecuis; b. May 19, 1954, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), and Cliff Williams (b. December 14, 1949, Romford, Essex, England).

Bunk Johnson was an American jazz trumpeter, one of the first musicians to play jazz and a principal figure of the 1940s traditional jazz revival. Johnson claimed to have been born in 1879, to have played with the legendary Buddy Bolden, and to have taught cornet to the boy Louis Armstrong. Though

Ban Johnson was a U.S. professional baseball administrator and the first president of the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs (1900–27). Johnson attended Oberlin and Marietta colleges in Ohio; he also attended law school in Cincinnati but did not finish the course. He became a reporter

Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, and producer who was an accomplished performer with a repertoire that ranged from dramatic leading roles to controversial comedic performances. She also garnered attention as a cohost of the TV talk show The View. Goldberg was the first Black woman

Brief Encounter: Cast:

Cincinnati Bengals: Struggles in the 1990s and 2000s: …Carson Palmer and wide receiver Chad Johnson won a divisional title before losing to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs. The Bengals captured a division championship in 2009 and qualified for the playoffs for five straight years, a first in franchise history, from 2011 to 2015, but the…

construction: Reintroduction of concrete: In the 1830s Charles Johnson, another British cement manufacturer, saw the importance of high-temperature burning of the clay and limestone to a white heat, at which point they begin to fuse. In this period, plain concrete was used for walls, and it sometimes replaced brick in floor arches…

Brooke Raj: Sir Charles Anthony Johnson Brooke (b. June 3, 1829, Berrow, Somerset, Eng.—d. May 17, 1917, Cirencester, Gloucestershire), who adopted the surname Brooke, became the second raja. The government of Charles Brooke has been described as a benevolent autocracy. Charles himself had spent much of his…

African American literature: African American roots: …the metafiction of philosophical novelist Charles R. Johnson. In Oxherding Tale (1982), Johnson sends his biracial protagonist on a quest for emancipation from slavery that he can attain only by extricating himself, in Johnson’s own words, from “numerous kinds of ‘bondage’ (physical, psychological, sexual, metaphysical).” Like the sophisticated, self-conscious trickster…

Charles Spurgeon Johnson was a U.S. sociologist, authority on race relations, and the first black president (1946–56) of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. (established in 1867 and long restricted to black students). Earlier he had founded and edited (1923–28) the intellectual magazine Opportunity,