Tom Pai n e
Sir: It is staggering to find that in a review of Audrey Williamson's new biography on Thomas Paine, your reviewer, Richard Luckett, seems determined to drag out again all the old and discredited tales used against Paine hY his political and religious foes. Can it be that Paine's political ideas are, in this democratic age, just a bit too radical for people like Richard Luckett?
Luckett would have it that Paine was a 'traitor,' but if he actually read the book he reviewed he will have found that tale demolished completely. One could add that by the same reasoning that makes Paine 'a traitor' for taking part in the American War of Independence, one could describe Jefferson, Franklin and Washington in similar vein.
Luckett also drags out the hoary old tale that Paine was a drunkard, and in doing so manages to get into a muddle referring to one hostile source that does not make the claim. From this, and from the fact that Miss Williamson demonstrates that while Paine liked a drink, as did most other leading figures in political life, then, and now, one could add, but was certainly no drunkard, one can only assume that not only did Richard Luckett fail to read the book he reviews adequately, but has also failed to read certain of the sources he quotes in presenting his opinions.
R. W, Morrell
Pinders House Road, Nottingham.
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