Thomson, Mortimer (1832-1875) Essayist, Journalist, Lecturer, War Correspondent. Born in Riga, NY, Mortimer Thomson was a humorist and journalist who wrote under the name Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P.B.--Queer Kritter, Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick ("Obituary," 5). Thomson acquired this penname while writing for a student magazine at the University of Michigan; although he never graduated from the university, as he was expelled for belonging to a campus secret society, Thomson had a productive career as a journalist and satirist after failing as both an actor and a traveling salesman. He was married to the daughter of popular author Fanny Fern (Sarah Willis Parton), who also worked as a journalist (J. Derby 203-204).
Several sources place Thomson at Pfaff's. In the Brooklyn Eagle obituary of Charles Pfaff, Thomson is included in the list of "bright spirits" who met at Pfaff's ("Acute," 10). Junius Henri Browne too notes that Thomson was a member of the "clever crew" of Bohemians when he was at the height of his popularity (156). In addition, Thomson was well-connected to the Bohemian crew. For example, he "served as the groomsman at [Sol] Eytinge's wedding," who was a fellow Pfaffian (Lause 62). Albert Bigelow Paine, a biographer of Thomas Nast, noted that Thomson often did assignments for Frank Leslie's publications and both Nast and Sol Eytinge accompanied him on some occasions (22). Renee Sentilles, a biographer of Ada Menken, describes Thomson as one of the regulars who could found at Pfaff's (142). Among this group individuals, Mark Lause argues that Thomson was "one of the more conservative of the bohemians" (94). Thomas Gunn, who had several connections to the Pffafian circle interacted with Thomson on several occasions. He commented on Thomson's close relationship with other men from Pfaff's including Frank Ottarson and Thomas Nast, both of whom were present at the wake for his first wife (Gunn vol. 10, 52). Gunn, though, was not a fan of Thomson, whom he described saying, "He is not a gentleman, has but a coarse nature and can never educate a woman into loving him beyond what the first week's acquaintance inspires. You may know all about him in two or three interviews -- which is a poor compliment to pay any man" (vol. 16, 180).
According to scholar Mark Lause, Thomson gained fame by "going to Niagara falls and writing self deprecating letters back to the Tribune" (49). After Niagara Falls, Thomson moved on to New York City. According to his obituary, "like many other young men, he fixed his eye on New-York, and would not rest until he was swallowed up in the Great city" ("Obituary," 5). It was in the city that Thomson earned the reputation as a popular writer of tongue-in-cheek social commentary that covered a wide variety of topics. His faux travel narrative Doesticks: What He Says (1855) gave him early success that paved the way for his parody of Longfellow's "Hiawatha" in Plu-ri-bus-tah (1856), his critique of the upper-classes in Nothing to Say: A Slight Slap at Mobocratic Snobbery (1857), and his humorous take on the fortune tellers of New York City in The Witches of New York (1859). Thomson also wrote a heart-wrenching portrait of the slave trade in Savannah, Georgia, that was initially published in the Tribune in 1859 ("Obituary," 5). During the Civil War, Thomson became part of the "Bohemian brigade" of war correspondents, including "O'Brien, Aldrich, Thomson, Williams, and Stedman, [who] together with others in Clapp's happy coterie...would take the field along with hundreds of other youths of like mind to participate in the greatest undertaking in the history of journalism" (Starr 9). In the years after the war, Thomson continued working in the literary world. The last position he held before his death was as an editor for one of Frank Leslie's publications ("Obituary 5").
References & Biographical Resources
"[Acute gastritis, which carried off Charles Pfaff last week]." Brooklyn Eagle. 27 Apr. 1890: 10.
Thompson is mentioned as one of the "bright spirits" who met at Pfaff's.
[pages:10]
"Brigham Young’s Two Hours with Horace Greeley." New-York Saturday Press. 27 Aug. 1859: 2.
Browne, Junius Henri. The Great Metropolis; A Mirror of New York. Hartford: American Publishing, 1869. 700 p.
A "popular humorist under the sobriquet of 'Doesticks.'"Browne notes that Thomson was a member of the "clever crew" of Bohemians when he was at the height of his popularity (156).
During his time with the Bohemians, Thomson wrote for the Tribune.Browne mentions that Thomson was also a war correspondent and has "had various changes of fortune, and no longer enjoys his old fame."At the time of Browne's writing, Thomson still lived in New York anddid "the drollery for some of the weekly papers over his old nom de plume" (156).
[pages:156]
Clare, Ada. "Matilda Heron in 'Geraldine'." New-York Saturday Press. 27 Aug. 1859: 2.
Clare refers to Thomson by his pseudonym, "Doesticks."
Congdon, Charles T. Reminiscences of a Journalist. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1880.
[pages:275]
Derby, J.C. Fifty Years among Authors, Books and Publishers. New York: G. W. Carleton and Co., 1884.
He is mentioned as one of the "brightest and most popular humorous men of the day," known to rally around the book store of George W. Carleton.Derby notes that "the noonday hour frequently found most of them at Pfaff's celebrated German restuarant, in a Broadway basement, near Bleecker-street, the rendezvous at that day of the so-called Bohemians."Derby notes that his pen name was "Doesticks" (239).
Derby writes that one of George W. Carleton's early publications as a publisher was "that celebrated society poem, by William Allen Butler, then and now a distinguished lawyer of New York, entitled, 'Nothing to Wear' (236).Carleton initially made sketches for the illustrations himself, but later gave them to his friend Augustus Hoppin, who made the drawings into woodcuts.The book was "immensely popular" and Derby notes that despite a financial panic in 1857, the book sold steadily.Derby prints an excerpt from the poem on p.237 which dicusses "Miss Flora McFlimsey, of Madison Square."Shortly after the poem's publication in book form, a Miss Peck of an Episcopal minister in Greenwich, Conn., claimed to be the author of the poem.She claimed to have lost the manuscript while shopping in New York and riding on the Madison Ave. stage, where she argued that Butler must have found it and claimed it as his own.The controversy helped book sales, and to keep things going, Carelton offered Mortimer M. Thomson one dollar a line for a humorous poem on the situation.Thomson wrote eight hundred lines (and was paid eight hundred dollars)- four times the length of Butler's poem - for "Nothing to Say," illustrated by John McLenan.This book also sold very well (237-238).
Thomson was married to Fanny Fern's daughter Grace, who contributed to the New York Ledger, like her mother did.Incontributing to the paper, her daughter continued the family tradition (203-204).
[pages:203-204,237-238,239]
"Doesticks: What He Says." United States Democratic Review. 01 Jul. 1856: 592-593.
"General gossip of authors and writers." Current Literature. 01 Jan. 1888: 476-480.
Thompson is mentioned as one of the Bohemians at Pfaff's "gossiped" about by Rufus B. Wilson in a "reminiscent letter to the Galveston News."
[pages:479]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 7. Missouri History Museum, 1855.
According to Gunn, Sol Eytinge illustrated "Thomson's articles in Frank Leslie's paper" and both lived in Brooklyn.
[pages:86]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 9. Missouri History Museum, 1857.
Thomson was present at Sol Eytinge's wedding (160).
Gunn "Met Thomson and Ottarson" (172).
Gunn recalls that Thomson borrowed money from the Tribune office; "bullied his way" (206).
Gunn writes that Thomson went to fight between Morrissey and Heenan to report for the Tribune (238).
[pages:160,174, 206, 238]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 10. Missouri History Museum, 1858.
Gunn noted that Thomson's wife died after giving birth to a son (51).
Gunn describes Thomson following the death of his wife: "The poor fellow...was dreadfully cut up" after the death of his wife; the men who were at his wife's wake included: "Ottarson, Underhill, Gaylor, McLenan, and little Nast, Cahill" (52).
[pages:51-2]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 11. Missouri History Museum, 1859.
Gunn writes that "Mort Thomson is out west, doing a highly successful lecture season" (168).
Gunn includes an image of Doesticks, Thomson's alter ego (229).
[pages:169, 229]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 12. Missouri History Museum, 1860.
"Mort covered fight between Heenan and Morrissey for the Tribune" (84).
[pages:84]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 13. Missouri History Museum, 1860.
Gunn recalls that he "encountered Thomson, fresh or rather weary, from the officer, where he had been 'noticing' a new burlesque of Brougham's"; "Thomson looked jaded, I thought, as if life were not 'all beer and skittles' to him, even with Grace Eldredge for Queen-pin" (87).
[pages:87]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 16. Missouri History Museum, 1861.
"Mort has taken a house up-town; Welles and Clif will live with him, presumably Ottarson also"; "Mort gets $20+ a week from the 'Tribune,' about the same from the 'Mercury' fro two articles of writing; these, with his winter lecture earnings constitute an income which will be heavily borne upon for the support of two households" (10).
"Mort is heavily-worked, as selfish inherently as ever, perhaps not so dominant in his way of showing it" (11).
Gunn includes a few articles written by Thomson to show how he uses his personal family dynamics within his writing (28-30).
"Mort Thomson has gone to the wars, to report for the 'Tribune,' in company with the 7th; hence his marriage may be deferred beyond the early part of next month.There was some talk of its occurrence before his departure" (131).
Gunn refers to Thomson as "Officer Mortimer Thomson" noting that he "returned to New York this morning, bearing dispatches" (138).
Gunn notes that "(Mort Thomson gets but $15 from the 'Tribune'; a mean salary)" (152).
Gunn includes clipping about Thomson's marriage; Thomson gets married to "Miss Grace Eldredge, eldest daughter of 'Fanny Fern.'The ceremony took place at the residence of James Parton...the celebrated biographer" (177).
Describing the wedding between Thomson and his second wife: "The ceremony was of the briefest, not occupying twenty minutes" (179).
Gunn on Thomson's second marriage: "The marriage will be just an an average one"; about Thomson: "He is not a gentleman, has but a coarse nature and can never educate a woman into loving him beyond what the first week's acquaintance inspires.You may know all about him in two or three interviews -- which is a poor compliment to pay any man" (180).
Gunn alludes to fact that Thomson once wrote for the "New Yorker" before coming to work at the "Picayune" (211).
Includes a clipping from the Sunday Mercury written by Thomson on the "Federal Chasseurs" entitled "Doesticks' First Night's Soldiering" (229).
[pages:10-11, 28-30, 131, 138, 152, 177, 179-180, 211, 229]
Hemstreet, Charles. Literary New York: Its Landmarks and Associations. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1903.
Hemstreet mentions that Thomson is "the famous 'Q. K. Philander Doesticks'" (215-216).Thomson was friendly with Arnold and visited Pfaff's.
[pages:215-16]
Lause, Mark A. The Antebellum Crisis and America's First Bohemians. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2009.
"Antebellum social standards required a dehumanization, which Mortimer Thomson caricatured as 'lazy, shiftless Northern white men'" (88).
Thomson is noted as being one of the more conservative bohemians. He mocked self-deceptions about the American past. In his spoof on Longfellow's Hiawatha, Thomson declared his intention to "'slaughter the American Eagle, cut the throat of the Goddess of Liberty, annihilate the Yankee nation...'" (94).
Thomson's pen name was "'Q.K. Philander Doesticks, P.B.,'" which stood for "'Queer Kritter, Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick'" (48). He had gained fame by "going to Niagra falls and writing self deprecating letters back to the Tribune" (49). He was also known as a popular humorist.
[pages:62, 68, 89, 110, 88, 94, 34, 48-49, 96, 98-99, 76]
Lukens, Henry Clay. "American Literary Comedians." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 01 Apr. 1890: 783-797.
[pages:793]
Maurice, Arthur Bartlett. "Literary Clubland II:New York's Literary Clubs." The Bookman: A Review of Books and Life. 01 Jun. 1905: 392-406.
He is described as one of the "others who rallied" at Pfaff's.His pen name is given as "Doesticks."
[pages:396]
O'Brien, Fitz-James. "A Paper of All Sorts." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 01 Mar. 1858: 507-515.
O'Brien mentions Doesticks, "whose humor is entirely original, and whose only fault is that he has given us too much of a good thing."
[pages:514]
"Obituary: Henry Clapp." The New-York Times. 11 Apr. 1875: 7.
At the time of Clapp's death "'Doesticks' Thomson is in the land of the living, and bids fair to take the belt of the fat men's club."
[pages:7]
"Obituary: Mortimer Thomson - 'Doesticks'." The New York Times. 26 Jun. 1875: 5.
[pages:5]
Odell, George Clinton. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VII (1857-1865). New York: Columbia University Press, 1931.
Mortimer delivered a "versified lecture" at the Cooper Institute on Nov. 9, 1959.He also appeared on Nov. 26, 1859 at the Odeon to deliver a versified lecture on "Pluck."
[pages:292,302]
Paine, Albert Bigelow. Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures. New York: Macmillan, 1904.
Thompson is mentioned as one of Nast's colleagues at Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper and as a frequenter of Pfaff's.
[pages:22,23,30]
Personne [Wilkins, Edward G. P.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 12 Apr. 1859: 2-3.
Personne mentions that the Tribune "abused" Rice for "cutting into Doestick's business" (3).
[pages:3]
Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton [To the General Public]." New-York Saturday Press. 17 Jul. 1860: 3.
Quelqu'un refers to Doestick's Lady of Lake.
[pages:3]
Rawson, A. L. "A Bygone Bohemia." Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. 01 Jan. 1896: 96-107.
[pages:100]
Schmidgall, Gary, ed. Conserving Walt Whitman's Fame: Selections from Horace Traubel's Conservator, 1890-1919. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006.
Sentilles, Renee M. Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Mortimer is described as a regular in the bohemian circle at Pfaff's.
[pages:142]
Starr, Louis Morris. Bohemian Brigade; Civil War Newsmen in Action. New York: Knopf, 1954.
In a discussion of the idea that "To be a Bohemian affored license for all manner of youthful exuberances," Starr mentions that Thomson ("Doesticks") from the Tribune and George Forster Williams from the Times "spirited the Prince of Wales from the Fifth Avenue Hotel to a bar on Twenty-Fifth Street, where, while tumult reigned in the royal entourage as a result of his disappearance, they introduced His delighted Highness to a mint julep" (7).
Starr writes that in the days prior to the Civil War, like many others in New York, the "Pfaffians were exposed increasingly to the clamour of a world beyond their ken.Something like a revolution was afoot in the realm of journalism, a revolution that would lift these light-hearted pranksters from their subterranean retreat and whirl them in its vortex.Soon O'Brien, Aldrich, Thomson, Williams, and Stedman, together with others in Clapp's happy coterie--Charles G. Halpine (who stammered to fame at Pfaff's, speaking inadvertantly of 'H-H-Harriet Beseecher Bestowe'), William Conant Church, William Swinton, E.H. House, Charles Henry Webb, a couple of artists, Frank H. Bellew and Thomas Nast: in all more than half of the identifiable clientele at the Cave--would take the field along with hundreds of other youths of like mind to participate in the greatest undertaking in the history of journalism" (9).
[pages:7,9]
Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume VI, Sunderland-Zurita. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888.
[pages:99]
Winter, William. Old Friends; Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909.
Winter notes that "the American humorist" Mortimer Thomson, "Q.K. Philander Doesticks, P.B.," acted as the groomsman at Solomon Eytinge's wedding in June 1858, in Brooklyn.Winter writes that Thomson, "a clever writer and a good fellow, [is] almost or quite forgotten now" (318).
[pages:318]