Thompson - James "Maurice"
Source: Waveland Independent newspaper, Waveland, Montgomery County, Indiana Feb 22, 1901 p1
Maurice Thompson, Alice of Old Vincennes, died at C’ville Friday evening. The body was interred at Oak Hill Monday. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. Dr. Kane of Wabash College. - kbz
Source: The New York Times Feb 23, 1901
Maurice Thompson died at his home in Crawfordsville, Ind a week ago yesterday. Ere this most of our readers who may not have read his books have learned from the obituaries in the daily press that he was a charming interpreter of nature; in fact, his work may be said to bear the same relation to the naturalist as that of Mr. Henry James does to the rhetorician. Mr. Thompson wrote simply, but with plenty of shading and in his most dramatic periods he gave you tints rather than colors. And that is the reason, perhaps why so many years his success seemed only moderate although his readers were widely distributed among many classes. Alice of Old Vincennes, however was to inspire enthusiam rather than passive admiration and its manner of presentation was such that all who knew anything about the author were curious to read it, and it was thus the general public learned that thousands of people had been quietly reading his books and liking them. Persons who met him say that he had one of the most charming personlaities imaginable - simple, unaffected, cheerful, sympathetic. A story is told of his debut in The Atlantic Monthly which is thoroughly characteristic. Mr. Howells was then eeditor of that periodical. One day there came to him some verses called At the Window and signed Maurice Thompson.
The first stanza read: "I heard the woodpecker pecking I heard the sapsucker sing, I turned and looked out of my window, and Lo, it was Spring!" Neither Mr. Howells nor Longfellor nor Lowell to whom the lines were submitted had ever heard of a sapsucker and so Mr. Howells struck out the word and wrote in bluebird. Mr. Thompson made no complaint when the alteration was brought to his notice. Mr. Howells, it may be, had not seen a Hoosier sugar camp. Before he left The Atlantice he called upon Mr. Thompson at his home in Indiana and said, "I have come to make a confession. You were right about the sapsucker, and I was wrong. But so were Mr. Lowell and Mr. Longfellow and I thought I had the preponderance of authority on my side. However, I'm going to restore the sapsucker tio his rightful place in the verses." Here is another anecdote which shows a fine touch of responsive sympathy.
The last book written and published by Mr. Thompson was My Winter Garden, which appeared in November 1900 the week after the publication of lLice of Old Vincennes. When the writing of the book was proposed to him in September 1898 he wrote to a representative of The Century Company, "Your pleasant note regarding the proposed book, My Winter Garden (a charming title, thank you) has reminded me taht I have the material in workable shape for such use as you suggest and indeed I have long contemplated something cognate *** The thing fascinates me."
It is not surprising that in the last years of his life publishers should rival each other in attempting to secure his earlier work and give to it a broader public as guaged by Alice of Old Vincennes. The King of Honey Island and Milly or At Love's Extermes are already out in brand-new editions. And now we are to have a new edition of a book of his which is which is not fiction, The Story of Louiisiana. And it is of interest to note here that this history of one of the most picturesque states in the Union was regarded with especial favor by the author himselfe whose Winters were invariably passed at one of the Louisana Gulf resorts. It is equally interesting to note that in his preface to Alice of Old Vincennes, Mr. Thompson states that that popular novel grew out of his studies of the history of Louisiana while preparing this story. The Story of Louisiana was published a dozen years ago as one of the Story of the States Series issued by the Lothrop Publishing Company and is one of the most entertaining volumes in that series. We have never seen a complete bibliography of Mr. Thompson's fiction published and so we insert it here feeling quite sure many of the books have been read by persons to whom at the time the author's name meant little:
Hoosier Mosaics ........... 1875
Witchery of Archery ...... 1878
A Tallahassee Girl ......... 1881
His Second Campaign .... 1882
The King of Honey Island ...1883
Milly: or At Love's Extremes .. 1885
A Banker of Bankersville ...... 1886
A Fortnight of Folly ............. 1888
Stories of Indiana ............... 1898
Stories of the Cherokee Hills .. 1899
Alice of Old Vincennes ......... 1900
What is possibly the last poem written by Mr. Thompson is published this week in The Independent of which he was one of the editors. It is called "Sappo's Apple" and runs as follows
A dreamy languor lapsed along
And stirred the dusky bannered boughs
The crooning tree did nod and drowse
While far aloft blush-tinted hung
One perfect apple maiden-sweet
At which the agatherers vainly flung
And could not get to hoard or eat
Reddest and best they growled and went
Slowly away each with his load
Fragrant upon his shoulders bent
The hill-flowers darkening where they trode,
Redest and best, but not for us
Some loafing out will see it fall
The laborer's prize - 'twas ever thus -
Is his who never works at all.
Soon came a vagrant, loitering,
His young face browned by wind and sun,
Weary, yet blithe and prone to sing
Tramping his way to Avalon
Even I it was, who, long athirst
And hungry, saw the apple shine;
Then wondrous wild sweet singing burst
Flame-like across these lips of mine
O ruby flushed and flaring gold
Thou splendid lone one left for me
Apple of love to filch and hold
Fruit-story of a kingly tree
Drop, drop into my open hand,
That I may hide thee in my breast
And bear thee far o'er sea and land
A captive to the purple West.
Source: Zach, Karen Bazzani. Crawfordsville: Athens of Indiana. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing Company, 2003.
of the most prominent male writers of Crawfordsville was Maurice Thompson. Although not a Crawfordsville native, having been born in the South, Thompson, nonetheless considered himself a Crawfordsvillian. Thompson joked about his first publication in this way: "The Civil War had left me a rather bewildered and certainly a very callow bit of jetsam stranded on the shore of poverty…the thought came into my head that I might write a novel and get money for it…I sailed into the task with furious ardor…when the story of The League of the Gudaloupe was finished, I felt sure that I had made a mighty fine story, but somehow the editors and publishers did not see into its wonderful qualities…a year or more dragged past…some good angel directed me to offer my firstling to the New York Weekly…in a few days a letter reached me, bearing to my emaciated fingers a check for $100. The earth appeared to have been made a present to me…I was famous and rich.' Oddly, it was 20 years later before the story finally made the press. Thompson wrote, "I had forgotten its title and I could not recall the name of a single character.' Obviously, he did not consider it one of his best works, but Thompson did become an accomplished and distinguished writer. Lew Wallace wrote of Thompson: "Maurice never lost his student ways, not even when a lawyer. His education was everlasting going on, himself his teacher; and that I think one of the bonds between us. Success as a writer of prose and poetry was his; but not all of him; he became a Latin scholar and knew the literature of France, like a Frenchman. Still…he grew an all-around man, lawyer, politician, geologist, engineer…a genius, in short.' His Alice of Old Vincennes became a best seller. Thompson was elected the first president of the Western Association of Writers in 1886. He wintered in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and summered in Crawfordsville, where he often entertained well-known authors. In 1900, Wabash College conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature upon Thompson. After a lingering illness, Thompson died at his home in Crawfordsville on February 15th the next year. In January of 1879, Maurice and Will Thompson (both writers) held a get together in Crawfordsville to form the National Archery Association. Representatives from clubs throughout America were here and Maurice was chosen President. The Thompson brothers are considered to be the fathers of American Archery. They were tagged as The Wabash Merry Bowmen. Today, archery clubs are named for them. The 1870´s ended with the start of the annual County Fair, organized by the Union Agricultural Association. Dorothy Russo and Thelma Sullivan, in their book, Bibliographical Studies of Seven Authors of Crawfordsville, Indiana commented, "It remains an interesting fact that a town with a population of little over 5,000 in 1880, when Ben Hur was published could have made this book possible. All Indiana cities, including Indianapolis, must bow to the astounding high rate of scholarship in Crawfordsville."
Montgomery County is again called upon to mourn the death of one of her most excellent and illustrious citizens. Only a few days since Governor Mount was called from his sphere of usefulness and honor and now Maurice Thompson, in the high tide of his literary strength and success, is dead. A life that was peculiarly sweet and winsome is ended, a career that was honest, strong and courtly is closed, but the influence that was ever for good while Maurice Thompson lived still remains and will remain in the community for many, many years.
James Maurice Thompson died this morning at 3:20 o’clock after a serious illness covering several weeks, surrounded by his family and friends.
Mr. Thompson’s illness dates back to about a year ago, although it was not until late November that he gave up his arduous literary work and all too late began the contest to regain the ground he had lost. While in Tampa, Florida last March, he suffered an attack of the grip. It was not a severe case and its treatment was neglected. It left him weaker than formerly and with an annoying cough to which, however, he gave little heed during the summer. As the fall advanced he became conscious of the fact that he would probably undergo an illness and consequently delayed his customary trip to the south. When once he gave up his disease he grew steadily worse, and while the change could hardly be noted from day to day it was painfully perceptible from week to week. Hope was not abandoned, however, until late last week when alarming pneumonic symptoms developed, due to the fact that his lungs, already diseased and debilitated, refused in consequence to perform their proper functions. Saturday afternoon he grew very weak and his death was almost hourly expected all Saturday night.
Maurice Thompson was born in Fairfield, Franklin County, Indiana, September 9, 1844, his father residing there temporarily. His ancestry was excellent; his father’s people having come to this country in the 17th century, participating in the Colonial and Revolutionary Wars.
Mr. Thompson’s father, grandfather and great grandfather had all of them been ministers in the Old School or Predestinarian Church. His grandfather was a politician as well as a preacher and figured conspicuously in the early days of Indiana. His son, Maurice’s father, was Grigg Thompson, and the older people of this community still remember his truly remarkable manner, eloquent, forceful, and a power in his denomination.
When Maurice was a lad of nine his father removed to the Cherokee region of northern Georgia and bought a fine plantation in the picturesquely beautiful Coosawatte Valley. It was a place remote from cities, but Grigg Thompson maintained his home as did the best class of southern planters and Maurice enjoyed peculiar advantages, well suited to fit him for the successful life he led. He was taught by private tutors and by his mother, a woman of superior attainments and education, to whose influence is directly ascribable to a great degree the career of her son. Her maiden name was Diantha Jagger, and she was of the Dutch families of old New York. She instructed Maurice in the classics, in mathematics, and in civil engineering, the latter study standing him in good stead in after years. He was a devoted student but did not confine his studies to the books that men make.
Where he lived nature’s great book was open on its fairest page. It was a region of magnificent hills and mountains, cold streams of wondrous clearness and purity, and unbroken, fragrant flowers and dwelt the birds that Mr. Thompson always loved. It was a country charming to anyone, but to a youth of Maurice Thompson’s loving and impressionable nature it was an earthly paradise. Here he learned the secrets of the wood and stream and all their timid denizens. Here it was that he became proficient in the use of the bow and acquired that knowledge that made him a true poet of nature. It was an existence almost idealic which was rudely interrupted by the outbreak of the great Civil War. The interests of the Thompson family were all in the south and they espoused the southern cause. Maurice with the zeal and conscientiousness that always characterized his actions, enlisted in 1862 and served over two years as a confederate soldier, his military career coming to an end at Kingston, Ga., where the command in which he served was surrendered. (*more details in article)
When the war was over the Thompsons found themselves confronted with a new order of things, not at all to their advantage. They still owned two plantations but they were like other southerners, “land poor.” The devastation of war and the altered social conditions rendered their property practically valueless. Still Maurice took up his studies where he had left off and for two or three years continued his student life, earning money for needed books by the sale of game in the nearest towns. Finally, in 1868, however, he took the advice of a friend and came to Indiana, landing in Crawfordsville without a dollar. The Terre Haute and Logansport Road was being constructed at this time and Mr. Thompson’s knowledge of civil engineering secured him a position with the company. He worked hard and was promoted. By strict economy he managed to save money enough to buy a law library, and giving up engineering, a profession never congenial, he began the practice of law here, being quite successful from the start. He was a good lawyer and might have risen to an exalted eminence at the bar had not his love of letters crowded out of his life the practice of law. He became a writer almost as soon as he became a lawyer, and the struggle between law and letters was a one-sided one. In 1871 he became acquainted with Horace Greeley, and Greeley published his first poems in the New York Tribune. They attracted favorable notice and a year or so later he became a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, Howells, Longfellow, Bryant and Emerson uniting in a favorable criticism of his work. (“Hoosier Mosaics” in 1875, “Witchery of Archery” around a year later, “Alice, of Old Vincennes” in 1900) (*life story continues)
Mr. Thompson’s home life was an ideal one. In 1871 he was married to Miss Alice Lee, a daughter of the late Col. John Lee, and their companionship together was a wonderfully sweet and devoted one. Congenial in all things, thoroughly loving, they lived and worked together in constant companionship with a devotion that grew greater amid the increasing cares and labors of their later lives. The three children born to them are still living, Claude Lee Thompson and Miss Agnes, still at home, and Mrs. Albert Blair Ballard, of Tampa, Fla. The family home, “Sherwood Place,” has been a home in all the word implies of domestic concord and felicity. Probably no family ever lived in Crawfordsville more thoroughly and sincerely devoted than that of Maurice Thompson. - thanks so very much, "S"