Inventing Tom Thomson: From Biographical Fictions to Fictional Autobiographies and Reproductions

Since his drowning in 1917, Tom Thomson has been recreated by poets, playwrights, novelists, filmmakers, biographers, and other artists as a legendary figure synonymous with Canada and its northern identity. Touted as a great artist cut off in his prime, his mysterious death in Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park, and the controversy about his final resting-place fired the popular imagination and raised him to the status of a national hero. In Inventing Tom Thomson Sherrill Grace examines many of the ways in which the figure of Thomson has been imagined by Canadians. Even people who do not know his paintings well will recognize The Jack Pine and know his legend through the marketing of Thomson memorabilia on the Web, in museums, and in stores.