Talk:Thomas Paine
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[edit] Archives
[edit] A note on his last name
He was born Thomas Pain and thus his parents last name was Pain. He started spelling it Paine once he revealed himself to be "the Englishman" who wrote Common Sense. [1] --Sparkhurst 21:45, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
Hmm... I came across this:
- In the church register of Euston Parish, near Thetford, England, occurs this entry: "1734. Joseph Pain and Frances Cocke were married June 20th." These were the parents of Thomas Paine. The present rector of Euston Church, Lord Charles Fitz Roy, tells me that the name is there plainly "Pain," but in the Thetford town-records of that time it is officially entered "Joseph Paine." [2]
--Sparkhurst 13:54, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
Did he have a middle name, and does anyone know it? --65.103.137.45 20:49, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
- Most unlikely. Middle names were uncommon, among ordinary people in England, until the second half of the nineteenth century, when they became quite fashionable.
- As to this discussion about the spelling of his surname, it's utterly irrelevant, bearing in mind that most people were illiterate until a century later. In a non-literate society, it's the pronunciation that's important, not the spelling. Spelling of a name could change many times during the course of a lifetime, depending on which literate person (usually a priest) happened to transcribe it. Kahuzi 22:02, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Controversy of his Recanting
There are quite a few fundamentalist Christians that believe that Thomas Paine recanted his beliefs on his deathbed and converted to Christianity. Since this is such a wide-spread urban legend, I think maybe it should breifly be mentioned. Just a thought...
- Any links or sources? --Sparkhurst 23:14, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
- http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/vindication_of_thomas_paine.html Byronarnold 21:58, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Article Improvement
[edit] Proper place of para on Paine the inventor
The following paragraph was, in my opinion, misplaced at the end of the Early Life section. I moved it (minus the struck out part) to the bottom of the American Revolution section since the reason he went back to Europe was to seek a patent for his bridge.
Paine was also an inventor, receiving a patent in Europe for the single-span iron bridge. He developed a smokeless candle[1][2], and worked with John Fitch on the early development of steam engines. This aptitude for invention, coupled with his originality of thought, found him an advocate more than a century later in Edison who championed Paine and helped rescue him from his relative obscurity.
Any suggestions as to the best placement of this paragraph? --Sparkhurst 23:06, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Last years
Obviously more needs to be added to the section as it stands now. Here is a paragraph I quickly wrote which could serve as a start, I suppose.
- Paine returned to America during the early stages of the Second Great Awakening and a time of great political partisanship. The Age of Reason gave ample excuse for the religiously devout to hate him and the Federalists attacked him for his ideas of government stated in Common Sense, for his association with the French Revolution, and for his friendship with President Jefferson. Also still fresh in the minds of the public was his Letter to Washington, published six years prior to his return.
--Sparkhurst 00:09, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Has Tom Paine's Life ever been put into a movie?
Has there ever been made a biopic, a movie based on the Life of Thomas Paine? Thanks in adavance for the answer. 81.173.227.133 12:56, 8 January 2007 (UTC)-- Robert
[edit] Paine's remains
I'm curious - in "The Thomas Paine Reader" (Penguin, 1987) it says on p.27 that Paine's body was washed overboard on Cobbett's voyage home. Nothing about the bones still being in Cobbett's possession. On the wikipedia Cobbett page, it also says something about 'losing' the bones, but then goes with the 'still in his possessions' story. Anyone got any further information on this? 82.6.104.229 14:25, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
The life of Thomas Paine (Moncure Conway Putnam 1892) which is the earliest full account of his life I've found so far says that the remains did arrive in Liverpool (on Novermber 21 1819) and even that the Bolton town crier was sent to jail for 9 weeks for announcing their arrival. It says that in 1836 the remains were passed into a receiver but when the Lord Chancellor refused to count them as an asset they sat for a while and by 1849 when the coffin they WERE in was in the possession of J. Chennell of Guildford it was empty. He does mention that a Unitarian Reverend Ainslie claimed he owned the skull and right hand of Thomas Paine but that he wouldn't answer any more questions. Other then that its just left as a mystery about where they went. He seems very certain that they neither washed ashore or are still in Cobbett's possession, unless of course he got them back down the road. Jamesofur 10:04, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Diagram
I have uploaded a diagram representing the constitution of the United States as proposed by Thomas Paine in Common Sense. I request comments here in the hope of improving it before it is included in the Common Sense article.
-- Mathieugp 03:27, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
- I have inserted the diagram in the Common Sense article a few minutes ago. Discussions on it should should be conducted in the talk page of that article. -- Mathieugp 20:50, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] bibliography
- 1995. Collected Writings, Eric Foner, ed. The Library of America. ISBN 1-883011-03-5
- 1998. Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings, ed. by Mark Philp. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283557-2.
- 1976. Common Sense, Issac Kramnick, ed.
- 1948. The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine, 2 vols. Edited by Philip S. Foner.
This section of the bibliography looks dubious to me. Surely the focus shouldn't be on the recent editions of his works, but rather on when they were first published...Zigzig20s 17:23, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
