SOURCE: "Thomas Burke: The Man of Limehouse, in Thomas Burke: A Critical Appreciation of the Man of Limehouse," George H. Doran Company, 1929, pp. 5-18.

Bjo'rkman was a Swedish-American novelist, translator, and critic who introduced American readers to the works of such Scandinavian authors as August Strindberg, Biornstjerne Björnson, and Georg Brandes. In the following essay, Bjdrkman discusses Burke's life, his philosophy, and the sources of his works.

Anyone with a love for strong color and brisk action can enjoy the work of Thomas Burke. But to savor it fully, one must bear in mind sympathetically the three main factors that have combined to make his art what it is. The first of these is the soil from which he sprang: the London East End; the life of the slums; the sounds and sights and mysterious doings of the dock district, where, "on the floodtide, floats from Limehouse...