Thorpe studied painting and at age 18 exhibited his “Ichabod Crane” at the American Academy of Fine Arts, New York City. In 1836 he moved to Louisiana, where he published successively five newspapers, chiefly in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Thorpe's “The Big Bear of Arkansas” (published in 1841 in the New York City magazine Spirit of the Times) was so outstanding a tall tale that some historians have named certain southwestern contemporaries of Thorpe the Big Bear school of humorists.

Following a political defeat, Thorpe moved in 1854 to New York City and published his finest sketches as The Hive of the Bee Hunter. During the American Civil War he saw service in New Orleans; afterward he returned to New York City and spent his remaining years painting, working at the customhouse, and writing for Harper's, Appleton's, and other magazines.