The Hive of the Bee-hunter: A Repository of Sketches, Including Peculiar American Character, Scenery, and Rural Sports

Thomas Bangs Thorpe (1815-1878) was an American author, journalist, artist and humourist. In July 1839, he published his first story, Tom Owen, the Bee-Hunter, in the periodical Spirit of the Times. He is perhaps best known for his story The Big Bear of Arkansas, published in the Spirit of the Times in 1841. As a journalist he was interested in Whig politics. During the Civil War he was staff officer to General Butler. He was also the author of The Mysteries of the Backwoods (1846), The Hive of the Bee-Hunter (1854), The Master's House: A Tale of Southern Life (1854) and A Voice to America: or, The Model Republic (1855).