Reading between the lines

 

As I work my way towards the last of Alexander Mathison's letters, it feels much like reading a suspense novel. When the dates of the letters flirted with the years around 1917 and 1918, I wondered what Alex would write about the news of the death of one of Margaret and John Thomson's sons, Tom. Surely they must have told him about this unexpected death.

But did they? Tom's disappearance in early July of 1917 and the discovery of his body on July 16 of that year* are known facts as the mystery of Tom Thomson's death has been widely written about. A scan of the information extracted from Alex' letters in 1917 and 1918 revealed no mention of the loss of his nephew, Tom.

I was intrigued. Were the Thomson's keeping Alex in the dark? Perhaps they didn't want to send him information about his nephew in a letter. Maybe Alex had never met Tom or the family didn't like to talk about that particular son. There is no mention in any of the letters I have read so far about this one of Alex' nephews, although George and Henry's names do appears as nephews Alex corresponded with. Could it be that Alex and Tom did not get along or just that Tom was not a letter writer?

Piecing together the story with only one half of the correspondence results in a lot of speculation. It also looks like I need to bring in other resources to make sense of the letters I am reading.

Sources:

*Little, John. Who Killed Tom Thomson? The Truth about the Murder of One of the 20^th Century’s Most Famous Artists. Skyhorse Publishing, New York 2018.