Until recently little information was available on Gray. It is now known, however, that he was born in the farm hamlet of East Springfield, New York, located about 50 miles west of Albany on the Western Turnpike. Members of the Gray family were prosperous farmers who had been in the Cooperstown region since shortly after the Revolution.

Thayer wrote a series of articles for the Hartford Evening Post describing his round trip journey from Hartford to San Francisco and back. He rode from Hartford to Salt Lake City before taking the train to Lake Tahoe, and then rode the remainder of the way to San Francisco. Thayer carried a bottle of water from the Atlantic, which he poured into the Pacific before returning east, a majority of the way by train.

MS The World is a residential cruise ship. Unlike other cruise ships, which operate like a resort, it is operated like a condominium complex, with large cabins that can be purchased. The residents, from about 19 countries, live on board as the ship travels. Some residents choose to live on board full-time while others visit periodically throughout the year. The ship is operated by ROW Management, Ltd., headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States.

Mr. Thompson left New York for Chicago on October 14th, 1891, and returned to that city on May 18th in the following year. This handsome volume records by pen and pencil what he saw and thought of lands, seas, men, and cities during that time. He began by going across the Continent to Victoria, British Columbia ; went thence to Vancouver, and from Vancouver sailed to Japan. Japan seems to have exercised on him its customary fascination. China did not please him as much. (Why, we may ask, the very hideous picture of "After the Execution" ?).