Thomas Paine
1 book analyzed
Biography
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was born in Thetford, England, the son of a Quaker corset-maker. He left school at thirteen, failed at multiple trades (corset-making, privateer sailor, tax collector, tobacconist), went through two marriages (one wife died, one ended in separation), and was twice dismissed from the excise service for agitation. He was, by every measure of 18th-century English society, a failure. In 1774, at age 37, he met Benjamin Franklin in London, who wrote him a letter of introduction to people in Philadelphia. Paine arrived in America in November 1774 with nothing but Franklin's letter and a case of typhoid fever he contracted on the ship. Fourteen months later, he published Common Sense — a pamphlet that sold more copies relative to the population than any publication in American history. He donated his royalties to the Continental Army, served as a common soldier and war correspondent (writing The American Crisis series, which begins 'These are the times that try men's souls'), and was given a farm by the state of New York after the war. He then went to France, participated in the French Revolution, was elected to the National Convention despite not speaking French, voted against the execution of Louis XVI (arguing for exile), was imprisoned during the Terror, and nearly executed. In prison he wrote The Age of Reason, an attack on organized religion that destroyed his reputation in America. He returned to the United States in 1802, impoverished and despised by the religious establishment. He died in New York in 1809. Six people attended his funeral.