The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine

What it is

This is a 1908 edition titled The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine, published in New York by Vincent Parke and Company. It contains a biography by Thomas Clio Rickman, appreciations by Leslie Stephen, Lord Erskine, Paul Desjardins, Robert G. Ingersoll, Elbert Hubbard and Marilla M. Ricker, and a selection of Paine's essays, letters and addresses. Daniel Edwin Wheeler edited and annotated the volume. The copy shown is a scanned book from the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

This edition gathers Paine's own writings together with later judgments of his life and work. It shows how Paine was remembered in the early twentieth century, when writers such as Ingersoll and Stephen assessed him. Its mix of biography and appreciation shows how the reputation of a historical figure is built over time.

Look closer

• Which parts of the book are Paine's own writing, and which are written by other people about him?
• Why might an editor in 1908 choose these particular writers to praise Paine?
• What does this collection leave out of Paine's life that a student would need to check elsewhere?