Born in Riga NY, September 2 1832, Mortimer Thomson was a humourist, essayist, journalist, lecturer and war correspondent, who wrote under the name Q. K. Philander Doesticks P.B., which stood for Queer Kritter Philander Doesticks Perfect Brick. Thomson acquired this pen-name, while writing for a student magazine at the University of Michigan. He never graduated, but was expelled for belonging to a campus secret society.

Thomson had a productive career as a journalist and satirist after failing as both an actor and a traveling salesman. Junius Henri Browne notes that Thomson was a member of the “clever crew” of Bohemians when he was at the height of his popularity. He was married to the daughter of popular author Fanny Fern (Sarah Willis Parton), who also worked as a journalist.

Read more about Doesticks in the Post Scriptum of 'The Witches of New York'.