Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737 - June 8, 1809) was a Enlightenment writer, revolutionary, and intellectual from England. He is most famous for publishing his pamphlet Common Sense during the American Revolution, a denunciation of British rule.

Early Life

Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain) was the son of an unlikely couple - Joseph Pain, a 29 year old staymaker and Quaker and Frances Cocke, a 40 year old daughter of a prominent lawyer and an Anglican. Between the ages of 6 and 13, he was enrolled in the Thetford Grammar School in which he developed an interest in science and poetry. When he turned 13, his parents decided to forgo his formal education and he became apprenticed to his father to learn the trade of corset making. In 1756, he set out for London as a journeyman staymaker. This endeavor did not last long, however, and in 1757 he decided to join the crew of the British privateer King of Prussia.

References

Kramnick, Isaac, "Editor's Introduction", in Common Sense (London: Penguin Classics, 1986).

External Links

Links to complete text of Common Sense, The Crisis, The Rights of Man, and Age of Reason