Introduction

Biography

Rebuffed in ear­ly at­tempts to sell his songs to com­mer­cial pub­lish­ers, Thomp­son start­ed his own pub­lish­ing com­pa­ny. He lat­er op­ened a store to sell pi­a­nos, or­gans and sheet mu­sic.

A lyr­i­cist and com­pos­er, he en­sured he would al­ways re­mem­ber words or tunes that came to him at odd times:

No mat­ter where I am, at home or ho­tel, at the store or tra­vel­ing, if an idea or theme comes to me that I deem wor­thy of a song, I jot it down in verse. In this way I ne­ver lose it.

Thompson took ill dur­ing a tour of Eur­ope, and his fa­mi­ly cut short its tra­vels to re­turn home. He died a few weeks lat­er.

Publications

• New Cen­tu­ry Hym­nal (East Li­ver­pool, Ohio: Will L. Thomp­son, 1904)