Born in Defiance, Ohio, The United States January 01, 1898 died January 01, 1935 edit data Thomas Boyd was raised by his mother's family due to his father's death before he was born. While still in school, he and a friend enlisted in the US Marine Corps and saw service in France, where he was gassed in 1918. Upon discharge from the occupation forces in 1919, Boyd tried several occupations before becoming a writer for newspapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. He opened a bookstore, Kilmarnock Books, in St. Paul, which became the locus of literary figures, including Sinclair Lewis. He was urged to write and produced the 1923 novel, "Through the Wheat," based in part on his own war experiences. Boyd later remarried and became interested in Socialist causes during the Depression, eventually running as the Communist candidate for governor of Vermont Less