Born in Thetford, Norfolk, Paine emigrated to America in 1774, after meeting Franklin who encouraged him, in London. His pamphlet Common Sense (1776) was the first public call for American independence. The Rights of Man (1791–2) was a response to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which Paine affirms basically Lockean principles of democracy and liberty against Burke’s conservative attack on the revolution. Paine had a brief success in France, but narrowly escaped being guillotined (he credited his escape to divine providence). His last major work, The Age of Reason (1794), a defence of the Enlightenment, contributed to his notoriety as an atheist, although it is more properly deistic in its political philosophy. He lived in France until 1802, when he returned to America where he died in relative obscurity.

http://www.thomaspainesociety.org/links.html A list of internet resources on Paine

http://www.ushistory.org/paine/ A brief biography, with texts of Paine’s works