Question

write a short note on Edward Thompson

Answer 1

Edward John Thompson (9 April 1886 – 28 April 1946) was a British scholar, novelist, historian and translator. He is remembered for his translations fromBengali into English and his association with Rabindranath Tagore, on whom he wrote two books including a critical biography...


Thompson was born in Hazel Grove inStockport, England, the eldest of six children of the Wesleyan missionarycouple John Moses Thompson and Elizabeth Thompson who had served inSouth India. His father died before he was 10 and his mother brought up the children under financially strained circumstances. Thompson was educated at the Kingswood School and later worked at a bank in Bethnal Greento support his mother and siblings. He joined Richmond Theological College, was ordained a Methodist minister and gained a degree from the University of London. In 1907 he published his first collection of verse, The Knight Mystic.. . (copied)

Answer 2

Edward Thompson was a famous historian, novelist, teacher and translator. In 1910, he went to Bankura Wesleyan College in Bengal, where he tought English literature. He associated with Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, translated few books from bengali to English, and spend some time in Santiniketan. Though he wrote two books on Gurudev, their relationship had many ups and down. Later in 1923, he settled in Oxford and taught Bengali to ICS probationers and was involved with the India Society. He was a Leverhulme Research Fellow from 1934 to 1936, as well as Honorary Fellow and Research Fellow in Indian history at Oriel College between 1936 to 1940. He maintained regular contacts with many Indians, students at Oxford and other Indian visitors, including politicians like Mahatma Gandhi for the Round Table Conferences in the 1930s. he has suggested to invite Jawaharlal Nehru as Rhodes Visiting Lecturer to Oxford in 1940, though  Viceroy Linlithgrow opposed. He died in April 1946 of stomach cancer in Buckinghamshire.