author

James Frederic Thorne

b. 1871

Best known for a slim 1909 collection of Chilkat and Tlingit legends, this early 20th-century American writer also moved through the worlds of engineering, publishing, and trade research. His work has survived in libraries and public-domain archives, giving modern readers a glimpse of both Northwest regional culture and his unusually varied career.

1 Audiobook

In the Time That Was

In the Time That Was

by James Frederic Thorne

About the author

James Frederic Thorne was an American author, engineer, and publisher born in 1871. Public-domain and library records connect him with Seattle and identify him as the author of In the Time That Was, a 1909 book of legends associated with the Chilkat people of Alaska and dedicated to Ah-Koo.

Beyond that literary work, catalog records also link him to technical and commercial writing, including Chinese Eggs: Conditions of Egg Production in China and Competition in Pacific Coast Markets, Prices, Imports, Exports, issued through the University of Oregon in 1916. That mix of folklore, publishing, and practical research suggests a writer whose interests ranged widely across regional culture and Pacific Coast trade.

Reliable biographical detail on Thorne is fairly limited, and even basic facts such as the exact year of his death are not consistently documented in the sources available online. What is clear is that his small body of surviving work reflects a curious, wide-ranging mind and a strong connection to the American Northwest.