Frederick William Thomas (born in Providence, Rhode Island, 1806, died in Washington, D.C., 1866) was an American writer. His works include The Emigrant, Or, Reflections While Descending the Ohio (1832), a book of poetry about the Ohio River region; Clinton Bradshaw; or, The Adventures of a Lawyer (1835) (famous for its courtroom scene); East and West (1836), set in western Pennsylvania; and Howard Pinckney (1840), a detective story. He maintained a correspondence with Edgar Allan Poe and became his closest confidante.[1]