Author Biography
As a writer, Thomas Bangs Thorpe is best known for The Big Bear of Arkansas, which is many readers’ favorite example of Southwestern humor. Before that, in 1839, Thorpe’s first story of note, Tom Owen, the Bee-Hunter, which is widely quoted, appeared in the New York newspaper Spirit of the Times, which he became editor and publisher of in 1854 (http://www.famousamericans.net/thomasbangsthorpe/). In 1854 he published a revised version of stories in his collection The Hive of “the Bee Hunter” as well as the anti-slave reform novel The Master’s House: A Tale of Southern Life, for which he is credited with creating the best example of the “mighty hunter” in Southwestern humorist literature (http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/price/athompso.htm). Thorpe was unique in his many inconsistencies with the general biography of a Southwestern humorist. Thorpe is also known as a painter. He studied art and painting at Wesleyan University in Connecticut from 1834 until 1835, where he showed evidence of literary and artistic talent. He later worked as a portrait painter of Southern aristocrats, a graphic artist, and an illustrator. The Bold Dragon, one of his early paintings is adapted from Washington Irving’s story. From 1858 to 1878, Thorpe worked as a civil servant in the New York Custom House, where he was involved in various financial scandals (People in History, Volume 2, page 156). Thorpe lived in New Orleans during the Civil War occupation (1862-64), where he wrote for a Whig newspaper and served as a colonel in the Union Army. Thorpe was born on March 1, 1815, in Westfield, Massachusetts. He spent his youth in New York City, where he received art training from John Quidor. In 1836 he quit college and moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana because of his poor health, where in 1847 he established the newspaper The Conservator. He spent most of his adult life in the south, and he retained a sense of respect for the people of the Southwest, which is evident from the dignity he gives to his character Jim Doggett. However, Thorpe retained his loyalty to the ideals of the North until he died in New York City in October of 1878. As part of his career in editing and journalism, Thorpe worked for the newspaper Concordia Intelligence, which included articles on artists such as Charles Loring Elliott (http://www.askart.com/askart/t/thomas_bangs_thorpe/thomas_bangs_thorpe.aspx).