Thompson, Francis

(1859-1907)

   Born in Preston, Lancashire, the son of a homeopath, he was educated in the classics at the Catholic Ushaw College near Durham, then studied medicine at Owens College, Manchester. He never practiced medicine, choosing instead a career in literature in London, but was reduced to selling matches and newspapers for a living. He became addicted to opium, which he first took as a remedy for some health problem, and was rescued from starvation by Alice and Wilfrid Meynell (see Meynell, Alice) who took him in. They arranged for the publication of his first volume of Poems in 1893, which included his best-known work, "The Hound of Heaven." New Poems was published in 1897. He died in London from tuberculosis and was buried in the Catholic cemetery, Kensal Green, where his tomb was inscribed with his own words, Look for Me in the Nurseries of Heaven. He is sometimes mentioned as a possible Jack the Ripper suspect (see also Stephen, James Kenneth). Some of his other poems: "A Judgment in Heaven," "An Arab Love-Song," "Beneath a Photograph," "Contemplation," "Grace of the Way," "The Veteran of Heaven," "Whereto art Thou Come?"

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). I Sing of a Maiden: The Mary Book of Verse. Sister M. Therese, ed. Macmillan, 1947. Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Modern American and British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, Karl Shapiro and Richard Wil, eds. Harcourt, Brace, Rev., shorter ed., 1955. Other Men's Flowers. A.P. Wavell, ed. Jonathan Cape, 1990. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery. (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Book of NineteenthCentury English Verse. John Hayward, ed. Oxford University Press, 1964; reprinted, with corrections, 1965. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Works of Francis Thompson, Poems (3 volumes). Wilfred Meynell, ed. Burns and Oats Ltd., 1913. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).