By Richard Briles Moriarty

Many resources purport to provide biographical information about Thomas Paine. Some resources intentionally, at times maliciously, contain definitive statements that are contrary to available evidence or otherwise demonstrably untrue. Others do so unintentionally, often by relying on misstatements in prior resources that even cursory research would disclose to be groundless.

The best means to determine reliable biographical information about Thomas Paine (or other historical figures) is to critically and skeptically examine multiple sources, hew to evidence, and avoid urges to connect unconnectable dots. Original sources should be sought out when available. No matter how often a false statement appears, or how prominent an author may be, the statement remains false.

This is an attempt to compile biographical resources through which Paine researchers may access, and assess, multiple resources. Each citation is hyperlinked, where possible, to the cited resource. The state of accessibility of each hyperlink when this compilation was created is noted after the hyperlink. Resources that focus exclusively on Paine’s writings or his influence without any biographical information are not included.

The cited resources are listed in alphabetical order based on the author or editor or, absent either, the first substantive word of the title. They encompass the good, the bad and the ugly. No effort is made to judge or report the relative value or reliability of those sources. To minimize broken links resulting from multi-line URLs, all hyperlinks are in https://tinyurl.com format. Should a hyperlink not work, internet searches using the other information provided will hopefully succeed. A work in progress, the intent is to periodically update this compilation with additional sources.

CAUTION: The PDF is over 200 pages and contains over 2000 citations with hyperlinks. Printing copies is not recommended. Best to bookmark this page to assure access to the most recent version and that hyperlinks work.

Click the image below to access the PDF containing the Resources:

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