JAMES THOMSON BIOGRAPHY

THOMSON, JAMES (1834-1882). —Poet, born at Port Glasgow and brought up in the Royal Caledonian Asylum, was for some years an army teacher, but was dismissed for a breach of discipline. He became associated with Charles Bradlaugh, the free-thought protagonist, who introduced him to the conductors of various secularist publications. His best known poem is The City of Dreadful Night , deeply pessimistic. Others are Vane's Story and Weddah and Omel-Bonain . His views resulted in depression, which led to dipsomania, and he d. in poverty and misery. His work has a certain gloomy power which renders it distinctly noteworthy.