Henry Thomas (1)

Henry Thomas, born Henry Thomas Schnittkind, was in his young years a college teacher, but by the 1930s had shortened his name and become a successful author of popularizing works of history, including many volumes of a series of Living Biographies (coauthored by Dana Lee Thomas, who was, I believe, Henry's son). I read this one summer years ago. It was very readable, and delightfully subversive in its political views (could that have had something to do with leaving his teaching job? I'm curious to know more).… (més)

Written with the light touch but informed assurance that characterized all the volumes of the Living Biographies series. In the case of this volume though, the irreverence this father-son duo brought to their work had deadly consequences. A newspaper in Uttar Pradesh decried the alleged blasphemy of its portrayal of a certain prophet, in its indignant outrage reprinting its "most atrocious" passages, touching off riots that took eighteen lives.
I read this as a young teenager and found the authors' appreciation for the spiritual longing of the figures they depict with their abhorrence of dogmatism an appealing mix.… (més)