Jim Thompson, the Thai Silk King

摘要

Younger generations may not know Jim Thompson (1906-1967?), but in the 1950s and 1960s he was famous throughout the world asa Thailand’s “Silk King,” ??and as an arbiter of international taste. Born??of a wealthy Delaware family, Thompson graduated from Princeton and attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture. Though he never completed his degree, he became an architect nonetheless, designing houses as well as landscapes and interiors. By his mid-thirties, however, he had grown dissatisfied with his life as a carefree bachelor and had begun to alienate his family with his increasingly liberal political views. World War II prompted him to quit his job and enlist. He traveled to North Africa, Italy, and France before??being sent to Thailand.