Thompson Cooper
{{Short description|English journalist, man of letters and compiler of reference works}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox author
| name = Thompson Cooper
| birth_date = 8 January 1837
| birth_place = Cambridge, England
| death_date = 5 March 1904
| death_place = London, England
| notable_works = Contributed to Dictionary of National Biography
| resting_place = Norwood Cemetery
}}
Thompson Cooper (8 January 1837 – 5 March 1904) was an English journalist, man of letters, and compiler of reference works. He became a specialist in biographical information, and is noted as the most prolific contributor to the Victorian era Dictionary of National Biography, for which he wrote 1,423 entries[https://web.archive.org/web/20060222093106/http://www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/dictionary/lslecture1/lslecture2/ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] (other sources say 1,422){{citation needed|date=October 2022}}
Life
Thompson Cooper was the son of Charles Henry Cooper, a Cambridge solicitor and antiquarian. Educated privately in Cambridge, Cooper was nominally articled to his father, and joined him in his antiquarian pursuits.A. A. Brodribb, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32556 ‘Cooper, Thompson (1837–1904)’], rev. G. Martin Murphy, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 11 October 2008 He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries aged 23, and at some point converted to Roman Catholicism.
As a young man, he was a parliamentary reporter, and developed an interest in shorthand. His Parliamentary Short-Hand was published in 1858. Cooper became sub-editor on the Daily Telegraph in 1861, and the paper's parliamentary reporter in 1862. In 1866 he began a long connection with The Times: he was the paper's parliamentary reporter 1866–1886, its summary-writer for the House of Commons 1886–98, and from 1898 its summary-writer for the House of Lords.
Reference works
With his father Charles Henry Cooper he compiled Athenae Cantabrigienses, a biographical work covering alumni of the University of Cambridge.
The Register and Magazine of Biography (1869) was a short-lived periodical venture for John Gough Nichols, covering contemporary biography only, and lasting six months.Julian Pooley, [http://www.le.ac.uk/lahs/downloads/2001/JPooleyTLAHS2001.pdf The Nichols Archive Project and its Value for Leicester Historians (PDF)], p. 9. A New Biographical Dictionary appeared in 1873, and was subsequently developed under various titles.Men of the Time: a Dictionary of Contemporaries; Biographical Dictionary. Containing Concise Notices (upwards of 15,000) of Eminent Persons of all Ages and Countries.
Men of Mark: A Gallery of Contemporary Portraits was a series of photographic portraits, accompanied by short biographies from Cooper.{{Cite web|url=http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~mwolff/cartoons.html|title=Quicklist of Cartoons|website=www-unix.oit.umass.edu|accessdate=12 October 2022}} It was published from 1876 to 1883.
Cooper therefore brought considerable experience to the DNB when it launched in the 1880s. He played a general editorial role as "compiler of the lists of names to be treated under B and future letters", but his speciality as a contributor was "Roman Catholic divines and writers".Sidney Lee, 'Statistical Account' of the DNB, 1900, p. lxiii He was also a prolific contributor to the Catholic Encyclopaedia.
He was buried in Norwood Cemetery.{{cite news
| title = The Late Mr. Thompson Cooper
| url = http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The%20Times/1904/Funeral/The%20late%20Mr.%20Thompson%20Cooper
| work = The Times | location = London
| page = 9; col F | date = 10 March 1904|issue=37338
| access-date = 11 October 2008 }}
Notes
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{{Reflist}}
- {{cite news |title=Obituary. Mr. Thompson Cooper (transcription) |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1904/Obituary/Mr._Thompson_Cooper |work=The Times |location=London |page=10; col D |date=7 March 1904 |volume=37335 |access-date=11 October 2008}}
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Category:English male journalists
Category:English Roman Catholics
Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism