Wayne Larsen, "Tom Thomson: Artist of the North" (2011)

Larsen's book is a brief, easy-to-read summary of many popular stories regarding the life of Canadian landscape painter Tom Thomson, who died in Ontario's Algonquin Park during the summer of 1917, under what has become described as 'mysterious circumstances'.

The book, as part of the Dundurn Press Quest Biography series, was conceived to appeal primarily to high school/junior undergraduate readers. This is important to note in evaluating Larsen's work. It is a basic form of biographical summary, written in clear and accessible language. He has not waded deeply into archival resources, and seems to have likely derived most - if not all - of the book from secondary sources.

The book is a fine introduction to Thomson's life, and certainly better than some biographies. That being said, it is not particularly demanding on the reader, and doesn't serve to challenge or question much of the hagiographic treatments of Thomson traditionally offered.

You can listen to a 2011 interview with Larsen here.

Roy MacGregor, "Northern Light: The Enduring Mystery of Tom Thomson..." (2010)

I will reserve some of my comments for this book as I have discussed it in the book review below:

Gregory Klages. Review of Roy MacGregor's "Northern Light: The enduring mystery of Tom Thomson and the woman who loved him". American Review of Canadian Studies 41/3 (Fall 2011).

For those interested in research regarding Thomson's death, I also recommend that you look up my chapter entitled "The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson", in Archives and Canadian Narratives, Kathleen Garay & Kristl Verduyn, eds. (Black Point, NS: Fernwood Press, 2011).


For those who can't access these articles, however, I can say the following:
1. The most important aspect of this book is that it is guilty of promulgating a multitude of incorrect or highly dubious claims about Thomson's death and the related activities that followed Thomson's death, many times describing them as if there is no doubt about their truth. The number of times the book incorrectly interprets or represents the historical record in such an egregious way can only be understood as sloppy consideration on the part of the author. All researchers, of course, will be guilty of errors, but these errors should not diminish the likely truth of their conclusions. In the case of this book, they do.

2. The book is frustrating in that it does not source its quotations. When an author decides to not tell the reader where they obtained quotations from, it always suggests to me either a certain sloppiness with regard to collecting data, or perhaps even a certain hesitation to have their work challenged by comparison back to the original sources.

3. The book appears to derive most of its observations from some one else's research, namely - Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy. This fact might also provide the answer to the previous concern, essentially suggesting that the author did not devote as much time to weighing the evidence as attempting to 'write a good yarn' on the foundation of an historical event.

4. The book makes some intriguing observations: firstly, that a photo long identified as Thomson's potential love interest may be incorrectly identified, and secondly, that a forensic specialist has suggested that the skull exhumed in Algonquin Park could be reconstructed to resemble Thomson's visage. Unfortunately, the first does not particularly change the story of Thomson's life, while the second requires significantly more scientific argument to produce reasonable cause to argue for an exhumation of the remains in Algonquin Park - an exhumation, it might be added, that many agree is necessary to resolve one of the mysteries surrounding Thomson's death and burial.