Thomas Bangs Thorpe (1 March 1815-20 September 1878), painter, journalist, longtime resident of Louisiana, and politician, contributed hundreds of pages to nineteenth-century periodicals and wrote six books, but he is best remembered today for a single story, "The Big Bear of Arkansas," called by Walter Blair and others "a masterpiece of Southwestern humor." Born in Westfield, Massachusetts, he was the son of Rebecca Farnham and Thomas Thorp (the "e" was added later), a Methodist minister who traced his lineage to Connecticut before 1639. He received his middle name from Nathan Bangs, presiding elder of his father's district. In his later years, Thorpe suffered from chronic Bright's disease; he died 20 September 1878 in New York City.

As a circuit rider, the elder Thorpe, then dying of tuberculosis, moved his family from Westport to Middletown and New Haven, Connecticut, before settling in New York City in 1818; there he died on 18 January 1819, leaving two children...