Daniel Pierce Thompson

Daniel Pierce Thompson 1795-1868, American novelist, b. Charlestown, Mass. He wrote adventure novels, many of which deal with life in Vermont. His notable work is The Green Mountain Boys (1839).

Thompson, Daniel Pierce (1795–1868), Vermont author and lawyer, whose political career led him into literature when he published The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esquire (1835), a satire on Masonry in his state. This was followed by another novel, May Martin; or, The Money Diggers (1835), which dealt with local traditions. As a natural antiquarian and born storyteller, obviously influenced by Scott and Cooper, Thompson came into his own as an author with The Green Mountain Boys (1839), a historical romance dealing with Ethan Allen and the New Hampshire land grants. Locke Amsden; or, The Schoolmaster (1847) presents a faithful picture of Vermont frontier life, and embodies the author's theories on education. The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter (1851) is a novel of the Revolution in Vermont. His other works, more lurid and less significant, include Lucy Hosmer; or, The Guardian and the Ghost (1848); Gaut Gurley; or, The Trappers of Umbabog (1857), a tale of border smuggling; The Doomed Chief (1860), an Indian story; and collections of short stories, including The Shaker Lovers, and Other Tales (1848) and Centeola and Other Tales (1864). In addition to his novels of the region, Thompson wrote History of Vermont, and the Northern Campaign of 1777 (1851) and History of the Town of Montpelier (1860).