Thomas Cooper (poet)


Thomas Cooper was an English poet and among the leading Chartists. His prison rhyme the Purgatory of Suicides runs to 944 stanzas. He also wrote novels and in later life religious texts. He was an autodidact, who worked otherwise as a shoemaker, preacher, schoolmaster and journalist, before taking up Chartism in 1840. He was a passionate, determined and fiery man.

Early years

Cooper was born in Leicester, and apprenticed to a shoemaker. In spite of hardships and difficulties, he managed to educate himself, and at the age of 23, having been a shoemaker in Gainsborough, managed to open a school there in 1827. He married in 1834, but his wife died in 1880.

Chartist leader and lecturer

After journalistic work in Lincoln and London, Cooper joined the staff of the Leicestershire Mercury in 1840. Leicester under his leadership became a Chartist stronghold, with its own journals, such as the Commonwealthman, and a school for adults. He became a leader and lecturer among them and in 1842 was imprisoned in Stafford for two years after riots in the Staffordshire Potteries, where he wrote his Purgatory of Suicides, a political epic. However, Cooper abandoned full-time radicalism on his release.

Writing and lecturing

In addition to various papers with which he was connected, Cooper in 1850 ran Cooper's Journal, but only a few issues appeared.

Works

Cooper's major works were:
Cooper's Poetical Works were published in London, 1877.