Alexander M. Thompson

Alexander Mattock Thompson (9 May 1861 – 25 March 1948), sometimes credited as A. M. Thompson, was a German-born English journalist and dramatist. From the 1880s, Thompson wrote for socialist newspapers and journals, co-founding The Clarion in 1891. He became an important librettist of Edwardian musical comedies in the early 20th century.

Biography

Thompson was born in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden (now in Germany), to English parents. When he was five years old, the family moved to Paris, where he was educated at the Lycée Saint-Louis.

Thompson began a career as a journalist in Manchester, England, writing for several papers in the 1880s and meeting the socialist writer Robert Blatchford, who would become his lifelong friend. In 1891, with capital of only £400, Thompson, Blatchford and others founded the socialist newspaper The Clarion in Manchester, which was important in promoting the Labour Party. The editors' views were much influenced by the writings of William Morris. In addition to writing on social topics, Thompson wrote theatre criticism, travel articles and on other subjects under the pseudonym 'Dangle'. The Clarion's life was always precarious, but among its successes was a series of articles by Blatchford, collected in a volume entitled Merrie England, dedicated to Thompson. It was said that for every convert to socialism made by Das Kapital there were a hundred made by Merrie England.

Thompson's first professional works for the stage in the late 1890s were scripts for pantomimes written for Robert Courtneidge, who was then the manager of the Prince's Theatre in Manchester. Thompson then collaborated with Courtneidge on many of his libretti.