author
Edward John Thompson
1886–1946
A British writer, scholar, and translator whose life was deeply shaped by India, he is best remembered for bringing Bengali literature to English readers and for his complicated friendship with Rabindranath Tagore.
1 Audiobook
The Leicestershires beyond Baghdad
by Edward John Thompson
About the author
Born in Hazel Grove, Stockport, on 9 April 1886, Edward John Thompson grew up in a family marked by Methodist missionary work in South India. After his father's early death, he left school for a time to help support his family, later trained for the ministry, and earned a degree from the University of London.
In 1910 he went to Bankura Wesleyan College in Bengal to teach English literature. His years in India shaped much of his writing: he became known as a novelist, historian, and translator, and developed a significant, sometimes tense relationship with Rabindranath Tagore. Thompson is especially remembered for translating Bengali works into English and for writing about Indian history and culture at a time when few British writers approached the subject with similar seriousness.
He also served in the First World War, and later held an academic post in Bengali at Oxford. Thompson died on 28 April 1946. Modern reference works and later biographies describe him as an unusually engaged interpreter of India for British readers, as well as a writer whose career moved across poetry, fiction, history, and criticism.