Apart from World War II, Thompson primarily taught English from 1939 to 1968 before teaching Belles-lettres from 1968 until his 1973 retirement.
Outside of academics, Thompson wrote multiple books on American poets including a three-part biography on Robert Frost.
[1] During World War II, Thompson was a member of the United States Navy Reserve and was awarded the Legion of Merit.
[3] Apart from his academic tenures, Thompson started writing literature about Robert Frost and Edwin Arlington Robinson throughout the early 1930s.
[6] Additional authors that Thompson wrote about throughout his life include Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville and William Faulkner.