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Lowell Jackson Thomas was born 6 April 1892 in Woodington, Ohio, to Harry and Harriet Wagner Thomas. When Lowell was eight, the family moved to Victor, Colorado. Later, at the age of fifteen, the family moved back to Ohio. After graduating from High School, he obtained B.S. degree from Valparaiso University. He went on to obtain both B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Denver and started working and writing for the Chicago Journal until 1914. While in Chicago, he was a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, teaching oratory. He began studying at Princeton University, where he also taught oratory, to obtain another M.A. degree.

In 1915 he traveled to Alaska and began a travelogue which led the U.S. Government to commission him to film and record World War I events. As a war correspondent, Thomas met T.E. Lawrence, a captain in the British Army, in Jerusalem. Thomas shot footage of Lawrence which later led to the book With Lawrence in Arabia. During 1930–76 he was a radio newscaster, but he managed to travel to exotic places around the world, narrate Movietone newsreels (1935–52) and travelogues for Twentieth Century-Fox, and write many books. He broadcast from many combat zones during World War II, and in 1949 he was invited to Tibet by the Dalai Lama. He profiled outstanding historical figures on Public Broadcasting System's Lowell Thomas Remembers(1976–1979), and published a two-part autobiography, Good Evening Everybody (1977) and So Long Until Tomorrow (1978). He also wrote Beyond Khyber Pass about Afghanistan and The First World Flight.

Thomas died 29 August 1981 in Pawling, New York.