Austin Holyoake. The inscription on his grave states that he was born in 1831, not 1834. Legacy In 1889, seven years after Thomson's death, Henry Stephens Salt published the first biography of Thomson, with a selection of writings, The Life of James Thomson ("B.V."). In 1910, Bertram Dobell published a second biography, The Laureate of Pessimism: a Sketch of the Life of James Thomson. In 1993, Tom Leonard's biographical study Places of the Mind: The Life and Work of James Thomson ('B. V.') of Thomson was published by the London publisher Jonathan Cape. In recent years, Thomson's poems have rarely been anthologised, although the autobiographical "Insomnia" and "Sunday at Hampstead" have been well-regarded and include some striking passages. Selected publications The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems (1880) Vane's Story, Weddah and Om-el-Bonain, and Other Poems (1881) Essays and Phantasies (1881) Satires and Profanities (1884; with preface by George William Foote) A Voice from the Nile, and Other Poems (1884; with memoir by Bertram Dobell) Shelley, a Poem: With Other Writings Relating to Shelley, to Which Is Added An Essay on the Poems of William Blake (1884; with preface by Bertram Dobell) Selections from Original Contributions by James Thomson to "Cope's Tobacco Plant." (1889; with preface by Walter Lewin) Poems, Essays and Fragments (1892; edited, with preface, by J. M. Robertson) The Poetical Works of James Thomson: The City of Dreadful Night, Vane's story, Weddah & Om-el-Bonain, Voice from the Nile & Poetical Remains, Vol. I / Vol. II (1895; edited, with memoir, by Bertram Dobell) Biographical and Critical Studies (1896; with preface by Bertram Dobell) Walt Whitman: The Man and the Poet (1910; with introduction by Bertram Dobell) Poems and Some Letters Ed. Anne Ridler. London: Centaur Press, 1963. Novalis and the Poets of Pessimism: With an English Translation by James Thomson ("B.V.") of Hymns to Night, edited by Simon Reynolds, Norwich, Norfolk: Michael Russell, 1995. The Complete Poems. Ed. A. J. Spatz. Arlington, VA: Charles & Wonder, 2012. The City of Dreadful Night and Other Writings. Seattle: Sublunary Editions, 2022. References Attribution Further reading External links The James Thomson Poetry Works Thomson, James (BV) Thomson, James (BV) Burials at Highgate Cemetery 19th-century essayists 19th-century Scottish poets Thomson, James (BV) Deaths from gastrointestinal hemorrhage Royal Army Educational Corps soldiers People from Port Glasgow Philosophical pessimists Scottish atheists Scottish translators Victorian poets Victorian writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers