James Thomson (B.V.)

James Thomson (B. V.) (b. 1834–d. 1882), who frequently published under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, is a notable figure of fin-de-siécle poetry and the freethought movements in 19th-century England. Thomson wrote more than a dozen books of poetry, satire, biography, and essays, but he is best known for his poem The City of Dreadful Night (1874, 1880). As for his pseudonym, Bysshe he took from the poet Shelley, and Vanolis is an anagram of the German novalis, meaning “new ground.” Born in Port Glasgow, Scotland, he was orphaned by the age of eight, suffering the loss of both parents, a sister, and his sweetheart all in his early life. Thomson trained as an army schoolmaster and served in Ireland until almost the age of thirty, after which he moved to London and became a clerk. He struggled with chronic alcoholism (he was jailed several times and hospitalized repeatedly), depression, hypochondria, and insomnia, often relying on friends for housing, food, and legal assistance. Ultimately, he suffered a painful, lonely, likely alcoholism-related death. Despite such miseries, Thomson managed to establish a reputation as a poet, literary critic, and radical prose author of some merit, garnering the admiration of literati including George Eliot, William Michael Rossetti, George Meredith, and Amy Levy. His childhood at the Royal Caledonian Asylum was an experience that would shape references in City. Specifically, his early religious education from the Rev. John Cumming (b. 1807–d. 1881), a member of the asylum court (akin to a board of directors) who, in 1849, became the minister of the Caledonian Church associated with the asylum, made a distinct and lasting impression. Cumming formed in the young Thomson a lifelong distrust and animosity toward organized religion. It is little surprise, then, that when Thomson met the well-known freethinker and publisher Charles Bradlaugh (b. 1833–d. 1891), the two formed a friendship. Thomson also befriended the Holyoake brothers, Austin and George Jacob—printers, publishers, editors, freethinkers. During Thomson’s final days, Austin’s son, Percy Holyoake, together with the poet Bertram Dobell, worked to remove Thomson’s liquor stashes, get him out of jail, find him housing, and retrieve him repeatedly from the hospital. Both men corresponded regularly about the author’s whereabouts and condition. Thomson was so close to Austin Holyoake that he would eventually be buried in the same grave at Highgate Cemetery.