Thomas Phillips Thompson studied law but devoted his life to writing and social activism. He published poetry, satire, social criticism, and reports and essays on topics ranging from the Irish question, imperialism, and spiritualism to natural resources, the labor question, free thought, and agricultural protest. Though he lived until his ninetieth year his most important writing was accomplished, and his outlook established, by the beginning of the twentieth century.

Thompson was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, on 25 November 1843. At the age of fourteen he joined his Quaker parents, William and Sarah Thompson, in their immigration to Canada. After brief stops in Belleville and Lindsay the family settled in St. Catherine's, Canada West (now Ontario). There Thompson finished his formal education, read law, and moved into journalism. He was married twice, first to Delia Florence Fisher in 1871 and, after her death in 1897, to her sister Edith in 1900.

Thompson began his...