Lewis Levien Thompson was born on January 13, 1909 in Fulham, England. He spent his childhood in north London with two younger sisters. He received a good conventional education in private schools, and though he did not excel in academic areas, he was a good singer and accomplished pianist. His happiest memories of childhood were the times the family spent on long summer holidays in West Molesey, Surrey at The Priory, their quiet summer home. In early adolesence, Lewis became friends with a Buddhist and began to read the scriptures of the East. This new interest began to distance him from his family so much so that in his teens he lived on his own in London with a small legacy from a relative. He did not go to the university but educated himself in the classics, including the translations of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian classics. He also read extensively in anthropology and psychoanalysis. In his adolescence, Lewis underwent the first severe crisis of his life, the turning point on which his whole future life revolved. He discovered Rimbaud at the age of 21, and finally he, like Rimbaud, rejected literature. He realized the truth in Rimbaud's remarks of a wish to possess the truth in one soul and body and the impossiblity of this wish. Rimbaud saw the only solution for the poet of integrity was to abandon all attempts as a poet. Thompson too experienced the anguish of a young artist who is certain that "the truth cannot be told" and that in his writing he wrote only half of the truth which is an untruth. On recognizing this, Thompson destroyed the manuscript he had worked on for five years. In the future, he would write only as a form of spiritual excercise.
Thompson believed that in the West all was distorted and fragmentary, while in the East he could find what was clear, classical, and complete. He wished to travel to the East and was given money for the fare to Ceylon by Sir Arnold Wilson, a Persian explorer, who took pity on Thompson. He departed from England on July 26, 1932 and lived in India for the remaining seventeen years of his life. While in India, he wandered the country living off of what others would give him in the form of food and lodging. During this time, he carried all his possessions with him in one trunk, including all his papers. (This explains why some of the paper is in such a deteriorated state.) Thompson was not interested in finding a guru in the beginning, but in 1936 he developed a relationship of affection, intensity, and frankness with a man Thompson called Jnani, or Man of Knowledge. Their relationship ended in 1943 when Jnani withdrew from the unconventional and untraditional relationship which he and Thompson had established. In 1943, Thompson found employment in the Rajghat School in Benares as the writer-in-residence and librarian. He remained there for four years. When the job at Rajghat ended, Thompson drew a small stipend from G. D. Birla, the industrialist and a friend of Gandhi.
In his last years, Thompson wrestled with declining health, a problem he had throughout his adult life. His end came when he returned to Benares in the lethal heat. He was found wandering by the river in a daze with the effects of sunstroke. He went to bed with a high fever and died alone in his room on June 23, 1949. He was cremated and his ashes spread over the Ganges River. After his death, Thompson's poetry was sent to Edith Sitwell by Deben Bhattacharya. Sitwell saw the poetry as the work of a genius and published some of it in an anthology she compiled.
[Biography taken in part from Mirror to the Light by Richard Lannoy.]
The collection contains aphorisms, correspondence, photographs, pictorials, journals, writings and translations by and about Lewis Thompson. The main series headings were taken from the work done on the papers by Richard Lannoy when he used the Thompson archives for the book Mirror to the Light. A copy of the book is included in this collection (Series 1). The Anthology series (Series 2) contains either hand-written or typed pages of passages from books that Thompson considered important enough to keep. This collection functioned as his library as he had no money to buy books.
The Aphorisms (Series 3) are comprised mostly of 3"x5" slips of paper on which Thompson wrote his thoughts on topics ranging from the body to eating to yoga. The small slips are in Boxes 4, 5, and 6. Care was taken to maintain the order of the aphorisms, so all were numbered in the upper right hand corner. The alphabet section cards have been added to help the user in finding aphorisms on particular subjects. The topic heading slips were copied from the slips that Thompson had used. The paper on which the topic headings were written was highly acidic and was discarded. Thompson wrote some of his aphorisms on larger slips of paper. These were removed from the small file boxes, unfolded, and placed in folders. A slip of paper was put in its place in the small file box on which was written the folder number where that page had been placed.
The Correspondence (Series 4) is mostly from Thompson to his relatives and a few close friends. The final folder of correspondence contains a folder of letters kept by Blanca Schlamm after Thompson's death. These condolence letters are from relatives and friends.
The Journals series (Series 5) gives a glimpse into Thompson's life in India. Some parts of the journals were written on 3"x5" slips and are in Box 7. As with the aphorisms, the larger sheets that were pulled from this small file box have been noted with slips of paper telling where that numbered page may be found.
There is only one folder of Photographs (Series 6). It contains the only known photographs of Thompson to exist as well as photographs of Thompson's friends in India.
The Pictorial series (Series 7) consists of pictures by children which tell a well-known story with pictures, as well as pencil sketches of children by Thompson.
The Poems (Series 8) are all original works by Thompson. Some are hand-written and some are typed out in preparation to send to publishers.
The Prose series (Series 9) includes essays and articles by Thompson to be submitted for publication. This section includes Thompson's Autobiography, as well as Such Stuff: Book of Dreams.
The Talks With Gurus (Series 10) are notes taken by Thompson during talks with his teachers and other spiritual leaders.
The Translation (Series 11) section shows that Thompson spent much of his time translating the works of those authors he deemed important. He seemed especially interested in translating poetry.
The Miscellaneous material (Series 12) includes manuscript items and notes that had no logical section in which to be placed or were loose when the collection was received.
The papers were arranged in 12 series by material type, and alphabetical order within each. Within each folder, the materials were placed in chronological order.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description]
Lewis Thompson Papers, 1933-1984 (Cage 569)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The collection was purchased from George Minkoff in 1988.
Aphorisms published in, Mirror to the Light: Reflections on Consciousness and Experience, edited by Richard Lannoy. London: Coventure Limited, 1984.
Edith Sitwell Letter and Telegram to Ella Maillart, 1949 December 17
Preliminary Guide to the Richard Lannoy Collection on Lewis Thompson, 1939-1997
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.