Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce) Thompson

Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on October 1, 1795, and raised in Berlin, Vermont, he worked his way into an education, graduated from Middlebury College in 1820, and then spent time in Virginia teaching and studying law before returning to Montpelier to practice. That mix of rural Vermont roots, public life, and legal training would shape much of his writing.

Alongside his law and political work, he built a strong reputation as an author of historical fiction and romance. May Martin, or the Money Diggers helped establish him as a popular novelist, and The Green Mountain Boys became his best-known work, drawing on Vermont's colonial and Revolutionary-era past. He also wrote titles including Locke Amsden, The Rangers, The Tales of the Green Mountains, and The Doomed Chief.

He was active in Vermont public life as well, serving in county offices, helping found the Vermont Historical Society in 1838, editing the anti-slavery Green Mountain Freeman from 1849 to 1856, and serving as Vermont Secretary of State from 1853 to 1855. He died in Montpelier on June 6, 1868.