Northern Light: The Enduring Mystery of Tom Thomson and the Woman Who Loved Him

by Roy MacGregor

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
FINALIST 2011  – Ottawa Book Award for Non-Fiction

Roy MacGregor's lifelong fascination with Tom Thomson first led him to write Canoe Lake , a novel inspired by a distant relative's affair with one of Canada's greatest painters. Now, MacGregor breaks new ground, re-examining the mysteries of Thomson's life, loves and violent death in the definitive non-fiction account. Why does a man who died almost a century ago and painted relatively little still have such a grip on our imagination?

The eccentric spinster Winnie Trainor was a fixture of Roy MacGregor's childhood in Huntsville, Ontario. She was considered too odd to be a truly romantic figure in the eyes of the town, but the locals knew that Canada's most famous painter had once been in love with her, and that she had never gotten over his untimely death. She kept some paintings he gave her in a six-quart basket she'd leave with the neighbours on her rare trips out of town, and in the summers she'd make the trip from her family cottage, where Thomson used to stay, on foot to the graveyard up the hill, where fans of the artist occasionally left bouquets. There she would clear away the flowers. After all, as far as anyone knew, he wasn't she had arranged at his family's request for him to be exhumed and moved to a cemetery near Owen Sound.

As Roy MacGregor's richly detailed Northern Light reveals, not much is as it seems when it comes to Tom Thomson, the most iconic of Canadian painters. Philandering deadbeat or visionary artist and gentleman, victim of accidental drowning or deliberate murder, the man's myth has grown to obscure the real view — and the answers to the mysteries are finally revealed in these pages.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Canada, Historical, Art, History, Mystery

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2010

About the author

Roy MacGregor is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction.

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 "the perfect book to end summer with..." stars !!!

Tie-6th Favorite Read of 2024 Award

Tom Thomson is one of Canada's most beloved artists. He lost his life at the young age of 39 in 1917 in his beloved second home of Algonquin Park where he drew inspiration for his sketches and paintings. He was an adjacent artist and friend to the Great Group of Seven. He was to be married to Winnie Trainor who never got over her beloved Tom....

The author/journalist is a grand nephew of Winnie and ever since childhood has been fascinated by one of Canada's great art mysteries. Was Tom's death accidental, a suicide or murder ? With painstaking detail and educated speculation and years of interviews and research the author presents this most interesting of stories and covers the lives of both Tom and Winnie and presents his own possible hypotheses as to what happened....

I was riveted to this book from the get go and discussed with my partner for many a hour while reading. I also felt great empathy for Winnie while falling a bit in love with Tom myself....

This is so much more than a true crime mystery but a beautiful love story, an ode to the Canadian near north and of one art's most enduring legends brought to life for today....

Truly Spectacular...

[Lyn Zuberbuhler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truthfully, I was not able to finish this book. As Tom Thomson was incredibly private, and the women who loved him even more so, I found this to be a very dissatisfying read, full of supposition and conjecture. Roy McGregor has tried mightily to pull together fragments of information, but in the end it is mostly conjecture about how Tom Thomson died, and his relationship to this particular woman.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down. It is one of the best "true crime" books I have ever read.

Truly, it was three books in one: 1) the stories behind, and, the investigations into the mysterious death of Canada's most influential visual artist. 2) the story of the woman who claimed to love that artist and how this intriguing figure plays in to the sudden and mysterious death. 3) The story of a writer, obsessed with solving the mystery that has haunted him since childhood.

MacGregor triumphantly presents the history of one of Canada's oldest cold cases, lining up the theories, forensic investigations and evidence surrounding the death of of Tom Thompson, in a comprehensive and captivating way. It felt like no stone was left un-turned by this book, since it takes into consideration all of the work done by previous researchers as well as MacGregor's own research and pounds out the possibilities in a methodical manor. However, MacGregor never loses sight of the human story, giving excellent representation of the Thompson family, Winnie Trainor, and many of the people that were close to Thompson at the time. It is stunning that, with all this information and evidence, the case has never been solved.

I get a sense that the author isn't completely satisfied with his findings even though he is able to make some important and definitive contributions to the investigation.

4.5/5

[Jason P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book - probably closer to three and a half stars - but bogged down a bit by the first third of the tale, which is heavy on dates and conflicting accounts of movements in the days before and after Tom Thomson’s death. The last part flies by. This is as much the story of how a century-old mystery came to surround Thomson’s drowning - and apparent murder - as it as attempt to give a pretty convincing solution to the puzzle. It’s also an account of Roy MacGregor’s enduring fascination with the case and his effort to do right by the misunderstood and much maligned woman Thomson left behind. It’s a great Canadian read - filled with wistful accounts of the small town where MacGregor grew up, Thomson died and many, many secrets are still buried.

[Gregory Klages · Rating 2 out of 5]

In several pieces addressing MacGregor's work (this book and earlier articles) I document some deep flaws in MacGregor's writing, primarily misrepresentation of primary sources, and questionable interpretation of evidence.

For some of this criticism, see:
Klages, G. (Fall 2011). Review of Northern Light: Tom Thomson and Woman Who Loved Him by Roy MacGregor. American Review of Canadian Studies.

Klages, G. (2016.) The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction. Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press.

[Kees Kapteyn]

The mystery of Tom Thomson is a kind of pet topic for Roy MacGregor. Being marginally related to one Winnie Trainor, Thomson's supposed fiance before he died suddenly in 1917, MacGregor grew up with much of Thomson's story already intact in his personal history growing up in Huntsville, Ontario. In 1980, he wrote a fictional novel (Canoe Lake) based on the mystery, weaving the facts of the case with the sensational conjecture that surrounds it. This non-fiction book arrives 30 years later, the fruit of relentless research and dozens of interviews the author had done through the years after the novel. Without the rich prose that he puts into his fictional works, MacGregor sticks to the cold hard facts, of which he has collected by the bushelful. At times, it does become tedious, often going on unnecessary tangents to explore the biographies of his interviewees, and the book's exhaustive persuasive essay style of writing tends to beat the reader over the head with his assertions. Through it all, it does allow the reader to collect all the facts and contradictions surrounding the case of Tom Thomson's death and it does explain where the lapses of justice and suspensions of dignity have tainted it and convoluted the facts to the point of near oblivion, making the story that much more tragic and even enraging. Tom Thomson was indeed cut down in his prime, and was never granted the dignity he deserved for his luscious talent and precious legacy. Northern Light steadfastly asserts so.

[Carolyn Whitzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of those books that needed a good editor. MacGregor is trying to do three things at once: (1) justify his hypothesis that Tom Thomson was murdered on Canoe Lake; (2) tell a tragic story about Winifred Trainor, who may or may not have been Thomson’s lover; (3) paint a picture of small town Ontario life. Oddly enough, the third bit may be the most interesting. MacGregor feels the need to take apart every alternate theory in every book about the artist, and there are literally over a dozen theories in as many other books. That gets tiresome. Almost half of the book is about Winifred Trainor, who was alas an extremely uninteresting woman. It is in the details of Huntsville, Kearney and Canoe Lake, Thomson’s chosen home where MacGregor was born 40 years after the 1917 death, the spats and the gossip, that in some ways is the most resonant part of the book.

[Anthony Meaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a Canadian you are supposed to know who Tom Thomson is, you are also supposed to know who the Group of Seven are. And 100% you are supposed to absolutely LOVE their art.

Thomson and the Group of Seven were a group of Ontario based painters who painted Ontario landscapes like no one had ever done before. In this regard they were pioneers and were painting Canadian landscapes in a way that was unique.

Their painting are pretty neat. But I being a philistine couldn't really tell you if they are great or not. Like some people aren't into opera I am not the best judge of painting.

Anyway Thomson and company's paintings (or prints thereof) are de rigueur for the Ontario Cottage set. Thomson is also revered by Canoeists because he was an avid canoeist in Algonquin park which is a large wilderness (sort of) park a mere three hours drive from Toronto and hence is one of the three busiest canoeing spots in the world (the others being Killarney Provincial Park and the Temagami region also in Ontario).

For many canoeists it is almost a requirement that you visit Canoe lake in Algonquin park because that's where Mr. Thomson met a mysterious end.

And that's where Roy MacGregor comes in. MacGregor is a Canadian journalist and excellent writer and lover of canoeing. MacGregor grew up in Huntsville a town very close to the park and one that was frequented by Thompson who appears to have had a love-interest from there.

MacGregor like many of the upper-Canada canoeing elite has always been fascinated by Thompson's death because of the rumours that swirled around town. Rumours of foul play, rumours of suicide, rumours of an unwanted pregnancy, rumours of empty caskets, bodies that were moved, coroners that didn't do their job and on and on and on.

So what does a great writer do with all these rumours? Why turn it into a book of course! And to his credit it is well written and well researched.

The problem is that there is so much speculation and so much conspiracy theories surrounding the Thomson case that it's difficult to point to a clear and definitive answer.

And so much of the book centers around Tom supposed lover and her life after his death that a lot of the book sounds like a collection of small town gossip.

It's an interesting read from a historical perspective if you are into early Canadian influential artists and own a canoe or a cottage (or both) in Ontario.

Otherwise there are probably more interesting stories/mysteries in your own hometown.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It was impossible to grow up in this area and not know about Tom Thomson. I cannot recall when I became aware of his existence, but it would have been close to when I learned to walk and talk. His story had interested me as a child - he's painted in the park where, with my brothers Jim and Tomand sister, Ann, I spent every moment when not in school, my grandfather the ranger had known him, my great aunt's spinster sister had been engaged to him - but the tale came to fascinate me as I gre older. Winston Churchill might have called Russia "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an engima," but Tom Thomson's story stuck me as equally unknowable. How had he died? Accident? Suicide? Murder? If murder, by whom? And where exacly was he buried - in the family plot, as family and the Ontario goverment claimed or still at Canoe Lake, as the park oldtimers had always maintained? I was hooked as a child; obesessed as an adult" - from Northern Light: The enduring mystery of Tom Thomson and the woman who loved him

Roy MacGregor's book offers a good insight to one of Canada's leading legends. A little dry and repetitive at times but a informative read non the less.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many writers have explored the Great Canadian Mystery: the death of Tom Thomson, accident or murder? However, I can't imagine that any of them have done as comprehensive or as fascinating a review of the whole story and the many people involved in it before, during and after.

MacGregor has the distinct advantage of having been born and raised in Huntsville, Ontario, close to Algonquin Park where most of the case occurred. He also spent many childhood summers in the park with his grandparents and heard many of the stories surrounding the controversy of Thomson's untimely death at the age of 39, on the precipice of becoming one of Canada's most beloved artists.

MacGregor reviewed countless documents and interviewed many people before coming to his conclusions regarding this mystery and his arguments are so convincing that it is very difficult to disagree with him. But what really makes the book so very readable is that he writes it like a murder mystery not a history book. This makes it a real page-turner and a terrific read.

Tom Thomson has long been one of my favourite artists and this book has definitely reinforced those feelings.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up in Huntsville, Ontario in the 50's and 60's, Roy MacGregor was privy to all the local gossip concerning the death of the iconic Canadian painter, Tom Thomson in 1917 at nearby Canoe lake. After the mystery of the circumstances of Thomson's death continued to nag him for four decades, MacGregor gathered his notes and memories to come to some sort of personal conclusion about how Thomson actually perished. The strength of this book is not in the mystery which is actually quite banal and somewhat sordid, but in Roy MacGregor's personal connections to and nostalgia for both the time and place that held the "mystery" for many decades, and why it remained a secret. Through relatives, friends, and personal recollections, MacGregor paints a vivid picture of rural Ontario and the people who lived there in the first half of the 2Oth century. It would have been wonderful if he could have found the "real" Tom Thomson, but perhaps he only exists in his magnificent legacy of canvasses.

[Amanda Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book on account of its main subject matter. Therefore, like many books, my admiration for the book's contents is highly based on personal interest. It's not any university press publication, but you do sense the author's genuine fascination with the topic which has led him through decades of his researching Tom Thomson. Sometimes I think the manner of Tom Thomson's death captivates the Canadian imagination more than his life. The manner of his death and his art are inextricably woven to one another. A great book to read in autumn.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. Having grown up in this little town, and walking those very streets, having paddled this lake hundreds of times with my father and hearing this story, yet never really knowing the connection Tom Thomson had with my town. This book had me with the first few chapters! The deceptions of the area are so vivid that you can't but be swept away to Algonquin at a time when the park was just beginning.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I'm not Canadian, but immediately fell in love with Thomson's paintings on my first visit to the Art Gallery on Ontario last summer, and immediately became intrigued with his story. This is a gripping story and a fascinating mystery that has now spanned a century, and MacGregor's passion for its subject comes through on every page. Well-written and suspenseful and recommended for anyone who's a fan of Thomson.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Tom Thomson and his work. As a person who grew up paddling the same lakes that Thomson explored in Algonquin Park its incredible to hear how his life was spent and how it may have ended! This book has captured me from the beginning and I hope that it continues that way until the end!

[Kate Jaimet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely well-researched and well-written book about the mystery of Tom Thompson's death. MacGregor builds a convincing case for death by foul play, while bringing alive many of the characters living and working in Algonquin Park at that time. Some of the chapters towards the end were a bit repetitive, but overall a great read.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primarily of Interest to those who have curiosity about the life and mysterious death of Group of Seven artist Tom Thomson or who have interest in the
Canoe Lake area and Taylor Statten Camps. A very thorough documentation.

[Anya Sotnykova]

Great read. Highlights bits of Canadian history and social norms of early 20th century. Also does a great job at unveiling the artist and his upbringing and the mystery that surrounds his disappearance. Makes the reader question the conclusion long after the book is done.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment. It started out well enough but bogged down in repetition.

[Bob Shepherd · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book, interesting, well researched, intriguing possibilities about the death of Thomson

[Kevin R · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, although a tad repetitious towards the end.

[Marc Vandersluys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story. MacGregor is a great story teller. It is repetitive at times, but in a murder mystery (which this is) that's helpful.

[Elizabeth Orton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good read - I could hardly put this down. Makes a compelling case for how and why Tom Thomson, beloved And iconic Canadian artist, died.

[Paula Norman]

An evocative look at the life and death of one of Canada's most beloved painters, Tom Thomson.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Loved this book. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Tom Thompson and the Group as well as Canadian history.

[Krissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a hard time putting this book down. Parts of it were repetitive but I really liked how the book was structured. Really makes me want to go back to Algonquin Park!

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book so far. I recently watched TVO's "West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson" and wanted to read more about him. Of the biographies available, MacGregor's seemed well-researched and, as it was written recently, he had the advantage of being able to incorporate all available information and give a broader view of the artist's life and death.

I am one third of the way through and was quite enjoying it, but already noticed a couple of discrepancies - one was the misprint of the year on a grave in Canoe Lake (MacGregor cites it in two places as 1915, but since Thomson photographed the grave in 1912 this was impossible. Turns out the grave dates to 1905). Not a big deal, but it is sloppy and shows that the book needs a good proofreading. The other, however, directly contradicts an interview that was given by Thomson acquaintance Daphne Crombie.

MacGregor claims to have interviewed Combie in 1977, and that she said Thomson never mentioned Winnie Trainor to her, the woman to whom he was rumoured to be engaged, and that "he didn't seem interested at all at the time." However, in the transcript of her interview with Ron Pittaway, also in 1977, Daphne Crombie says quite clearly that Tom was with Winnie all the time when she was at Canoe Lake. (Part of this interview is reprinted here: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites...) Maybe MacGregor deals with this discrepancy later in the book? I haven't finished it yet, so I can't say. But it is disappointing because it either indicated that Daphne Crombie's mind was wandering at the time she was interviewed by both MacGregor and Pittaway, making her stories unreliable, or that MacGregor's work is not as well-researched as it first appears.

For me this is significant because MacGregor uses it to bolster his claim that Thomson was a ladies' man, and was possibly hitting on Crombie herself. I am wary of using today's standards to interpret historical events -it impacts our perception of the artist and is, quite frankly, irresponsible when it is based on shaky evidence. Thomson may well have been a ladies' man, but he may also have been exactly what he seemed, which was a somewhat reserved man who loved the north country and loved painting, and was slow to settle down as it would have forced him to change his lifestyle.

It also makes me wonder what else in this book is represented inaccurately. I haven't given up on it yet, but am taking MacGregor's claims with a grain of salt, and will be looking around for another Thomson biography when I am done.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

During my recent second trip to Canada's famous Algonquin Park, I once again found myself caught up by its natural beauty and by the compelling mystery of its most famous visitor - painter, Tom Thomson. Only this time, my enthusiasm led me to purchase this book. It was probably a mistake.

Little is known for sure about how Thomson actually died, so this book catalogues all of the conflicting theories about what might have led to his death. Was he murdered? Did he commit suicide? Did he fall out of his canoe while attempting to pee? Was he even in his canoe at all? This book tells it all, and by the end you're so overwhelmed by all the conjecture and supposition and just plain rumour that you feel like you're no further ahead than you were when you started.

"The Woman Who Loved HIm" is also little more than rumour. My feeling was that this book was 20% actual information and 80% padding. I learned a little about Thomson's early life and painting methods, so it wasn't a complete lost. But the fact is, we will probably never really know how Canada's most famous artist died, and maybe that mystery is a good thing.

[Occhi Aperti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Began reading this book with healthy skepticism. We have seen many of Thomson's works in the National Gallery of Canada and in other collections. We have also canoed and camped at Canoe Lake and Algonquin Park, where much of the painting and events took place. We found the book quite interesting and entertaining. Spoiler alert: Thomson's death was surrounded by incompetent and suspicious behavior. Many things just do not sit right and smell like a rotten fish left out of Canoe Lake for too long. MacGregor does a good job of presenting it all and painting an intriguing picture of the main players. If you have an interest in Tom Thomson, this is a must read.

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book from Algonquin Park during our trip to Huntsville. To be honest, I haven't read much about Tom Thomson, although I saw some of his work in Ottawa. The conclusion is that he was murdered and it's his body in Canoe Lake and not someone Indigenous. It was Shannon Fraser over the money he owed to Tom. But Tom, it seems, was no saint, and was probably planning to leave behind 'pregnant' Winnie . Overall not a bad book and engaging.