THOMPSON***


E-text prepared by Matt Whittaker, Suzanne Shell, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)



   **********************************************************************
   * Transcriber's Note:                                                *
   *                                                                    *
   * Obvious typographical errors were corrected and the use of hyphens *
   * was made consistent throughout. All other spelling and punctuation *
   * was retained as it appeared in the original text.                  *
   **********************************************************************





MY LIFE:

Or

The Adventures of Geo. Thompson.
Being the Auto-Biography of an
Author. Written by Himself.


  Why rove in _Fiction's_ shadowy land,
    And seek for treasures there,
  When _Truth's_ domain, so near at hand,
    Is filled with things most rare--
  When every day brings something new,
  Some great, stupendous change,
  Something exciting, wild and _true_,
  Most wonderful and strange!

  [ORIGINAL.]







{First published 1854}


[Illustration: Yellow Cover of Thompson's _My Life_. Original size 6 x
9-1/8". Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society.]




INTRODUCTION

_In which the author defineth his position._


It having become the fashion of distinguished novelists to write their
own lives--or, in other words, to blow their own trumpets,--the author
of these pages is induced, at the solicitation of numerous friends,
whose bumps of inquisitiveness are strongly developed, to present his
auto-biography to the public--in so doing which, he but follows the
example of Alexandre Dumas, the brilliant French novelist, and of the
world-renowned Dickens, both of whom are understood to be preparing
their personal histories