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Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
A riveting new biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered.
Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind.
But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. As a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he encountered duplicitous authorities who turned away from him when their reputations were at risk. At Carlisle, he dealt with the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe did not succumb. The man survived, complications and all, and so did the myth.
Path Lit by Lightning is a great American story from a master biographer.
Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind.
But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. As a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he encountered duplicitous authorities who turned away from him when their reputations were at risk. At Carlisle, he dealt with the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe did not succumb. The man survived, complications and all, and so did the myth.
Path Lit by Lightning is a great American story from a master biographer.
672 pages, Hardcover
First published August 9, 2022
986 people are currently reading
8119 people want to read
About the author
David Maraniss
29 books372 followersDavid Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post and the author of four critically acclaimed and bestselling books, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton, They Marched Into Sunlight War and Peace, Vietnam and America October 1967, and Clemente The Passion and Grace of Baseballs Last Hero. He is also the author of The Clinton Enigma and coauthor of The Prince of Tennessee: Al Gore Meets His Fate and "Tell Newt to Shut Up!"
David is a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the Pulitzer for national reporting in 1993 for his newspaper coverage of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. He has won several other notable awards for achievements in journalism, including the George Polk Award, the Dirksen Prize for Congressional Reporting, the ASNE Laventhol Prize for Deadline Writing, the Hancock Prize for Financial Writing, the Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Frankfort Book Prize, the Eagleton Book Prize, the Ambassador Book Prize, and Latino Book Prize.
"
David is a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the Pulitzer for national reporting in 1993 for his newspaper coverage of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. He has won several other notable awards for achievements in journalism, including the George Polk Award, the Dirksen Prize for Congressional Reporting, the ASNE Laventhol Prize for Deadline Writing, the Hancock Prize for Financial Writing, the Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Frankfort Book Prize, the Eagleton Book Prize, the Ambassador Book Prize, and Latino Book Prize.
"
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 448 reviews
August 22, 2022
Rated: 5 stars
David Maraniss has written a fantastic book. One would expect that given his accomplishments as listed on the back cover of the book: “an associate editor of the Washington Post and a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University…has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times.”
The flow of the book keeps the reader engaged and the writing is never dull. I have learned many nuggets of history as it pertains to sports that I might never have come across if not for this book. As you can tell from the rating, I really enjoyed reading this over 500-page tome.
If one read this book thinking that it took 500 pages to tell the story of Jim Thorpe, “the greatest athlete in the whole world” (per King Gustav at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm), I think they would be misled. A lot of pages are about the sports happenings and historical events in the world during the time period being discussed.
Jim Thorpe was an accomplished athlete that had outstanding natural ability. He excelled in track and field (medals won in these Olympic events), but he also was outstanding in and played professionally football, baseball and basketball, and he also played lacrosse and won the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing competition. He must have really been light on his feet!
Thorpe played with or against notable persons such as Dwight D “Ike” Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Christy Mathewson, and Babe Ruth, to name just a few.
A hero throughout his life to many, Thorpe was beset with many trials—some personal and many professional, but he struggled with alcoholism and the ability to make a decent living. The search for a living wage on which to support his family saw Thorpe always on the road hustling for the next dollar. Thorpe was known to give his money to anyone in need, even if it left empty his wallet or his pocket. He was often taken advantage of by those that wanted to use his celebrity to advance ticket sales in some scheme, but then Thorpe many times would be “stiffed” for money that he had earned.
It's a shame that he rarely received the respect that he so dearly deserved and not just because he was a sports “star”; because, he was a human being and not someone to demean because of his background. Thorpe was a real human superman. I hope everyone will read this book.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster and the author for the privilege of reading this ARC via a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an unbiased review.
David Maraniss has written a fantastic book. One would expect that given his accomplishments as listed on the back cover of the book: “an associate editor of the Washington Post and a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University…has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times.”
The flow of the book keeps the reader engaged and the writing is never dull. I have learned many nuggets of history as it pertains to sports that I might never have come across if not for this book. As you can tell from the rating, I really enjoyed reading this over 500-page tome.
If one read this book thinking that it took 500 pages to tell the story of Jim Thorpe, “the greatest athlete in the whole world” (per King Gustav at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm), I think they would be misled. A lot of pages are about the sports happenings and historical events in the world during the time period being discussed.
Jim Thorpe was an accomplished athlete that had outstanding natural ability. He excelled in track and field (medals won in these Olympic events), but he also was outstanding in and played professionally football, baseball and basketball, and he also played lacrosse and won the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing competition. He must have really been light on his feet!
Thorpe played with or against notable persons such as Dwight D “Ike” Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Christy Mathewson, and Babe Ruth, to name just a few.
A hero throughout his life to many, Thorpe was beset with many trials—some personal and many professional, but he struggled with alcoholism and the ability to make a decent living. The search for a living wage on which to support his family saw Thorpe always on the road hustling for the next dollar. Thorpe was known to give his money to anyone in need, even if it left empty his wallet or his pocket. He was often taken advantage of by those that wanted to use his celebrity to advance ticket sales in some scheme, but then Thorpe many times would be “stiffed” for money that he had earned.
It's a shame that he rarely received the respect that he so dearly deserved and not just because he was a sports “star”; because, he was a human being and not someone to demean because of his background. Thorpe was a real human superman. I hope everyone will read this book.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster and the author for the privilege of reading this ARC via a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an unbiased review.
August 31, 2022
This was so long and detailed that I couldn't finish it. I was looking for an inspiring story of an amazing athlete, and wasn't expecting all the minutely detailed historical research and politics that were included. Jim Thorpe was not the centerpiece of this book. I will look for a lighter read that is more focused on Jim Thorpe.
Read
August 18, 2022Jim Thorpe, a Native American, excelled at nearly every sport he took on, becoming one of the most gifted athletes of all time. His legendary status tipped over into mythology, partly abetted by Thorpe himself, and partly created by the media of his day, which also dealt in racist stereotypes about the prowess of Indigenous peoples.
Separating the truth of Thorpe’s life from the many fictions is a task for only the most skilled of biographers. David Maraniss, associate editor at The Washington Post, winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, and author of 12 previous books, including “When Pride Still Mattered: A Life Of Vince Lombardi,” a biography of famed football coach Vince Lombardi, takes on that challenge. He aims to set the record straight in “Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe.”
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Christian Science Monitor!
Separating the truth of Thorpe’s life from the many fictions is a task for only the most skilled of biographers. David Maraniss, associate editor at The Washington Post, winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, and author of 12 previous books, including “When Pride Still Mattered: A Life Of Vince Lombardi,” a biography of famed football coach Vince Lombardi, takes on that challenge. He aims to set the record straight in “Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe.”
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Christian Science Monitor!
September 14, 2024
This is the biography of Jim Thorpe, an early Twentieth Century American athlete who was also a native American Indian. The title of the book “Path Lit by Lightning” is the English translation of the name given to him by his parents and tribe—Wa-tho-Huk. His ancestry contains Sac and Fox, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Menominee, French and English. Making him truly an American.
As a young boy he was shipped from his home in Oklahoma to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. One of many schools for native American children meant to assimilate them into “civilized society”. The motto at Carlisle was to “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
At Carlisle he caught the eye of Pop Warner, a famous athletic coach. Thorpe excelled at football and track and field. In 1912 he competed in the Olympics at Stockholm, Sweden, where he won both the Pentathlon, a five event track and field competition, and the Decathlon, a ten event track and field competition. At the awards ceremony the King of Sweden proclaimed "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world”.
Like many other college athletes Thorpe played minor league baseball during the summer to earn some money. While other college athletes used fictitious names to preserve their amateur status, Thorpe used his real name. After the Olympics it was discovered that Thorpe had been paid to play baseball which made him a professional. He was stripped of his Olympic medals and records.
Thorpe was perhaps most famous for his performance in football. He led the Carlisle team to an 11-1 record and the national collegiate football championship in 1911. His football career included wins over Harvard and West Point, the powerhouse teams of that time.
The West Point game serves as an allegory for this book. Prior to the game coach Pop Warner told the team that just 22 years ago the fathers of the West Point team were the soldiers that massacred 300 of their relatives at Wounded Knee. Although White America was no longer massacring Native Americans they were still emasculating them by destroying their culture, stealing their land, and discriminating against them as “those poor Indians.”
Given the troubles Jim Thorpe had maintaining his amateur athletic status this book could serve as a good starting point for a discussion of amateur versus professional athletics. While we pay our teachers and nurses a pittance that barely allows them to support themselves or their families, we then pay our professional athletes millions and millions of dollars to play a game that high school and college kids play for free. And arguably a more entertaining game.
In 1951 Thorpe was selected by sportswriters as the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century beating athletes like Babe Ruth and Jesse Owens. Yet during his career playing professional baseball and football he never earned enough to support himself.
This is a biography of a person not that well-known to people these days. In his time he was a very popular figure. The author points out that this made him someone who might attract fans to games. This is a brutally honest biography of a very talented athlete who was used by unscrupulous people.
As a young boy he was shipped from his home in Oklahoma to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. One of many schools for native American children meant to assimilate them into “civilized society”. The motto at Carlisle was to “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
At Carlisle he caught the eye of Pop Warner, a famous athletic coach. Thorpe excelled at football and track and field. In 1912 he competed in the Olympics at Stockholm, Sweden, where he won both the Pentathlon, a five event track and field competition, and the Decathlon, a ten event track and field competition. At the awards ceremony the King of Sweden proclaimed "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world”.
Like many other college athletes Thorpe played minor league baseball during the summer to earn some money. While other college athletes used fictitious names to preserve their amateur status, Thorpe used his real name. After the Olympics it was discovered that Thorpe had been paid to play baseball which made him a professional. He was stripped of his Olympic medals and records.
Thorpe was perhaps most famous for his performance in football. He led the Carlisle team to an 11-1 record and the national collegiate football championship in 1911. His football career included wins over Harvard and West Point, the powerhouse teams of that time.
The West Point game serves as an allegory for this book. Prior to the game coach Pop Warner told the team that just 22 years ago the fathers of the West Point team were the soldiers that massacred 300 of their relatives at Wounded Knee. Although White America was no longer massacring Native Americans they were still emasculating them by destroying their culture, stealing their land, and discriminating against them as “those poor Indians.”
Given the troubles Jim Thorpe had maintaining his amateur athletic status this book could serve as a good starting point for a discussion of amateur versus professional athletics. While we pay our teachers and nurses a pittance that barely allows them to support themselves or their families, we then pay our professional athletes millions and millions of dollars to play a game that high school and college kids play for free. And arguably a more entertaining game.
In 1951 Thorpe was selected by sportswriters as the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century beating athletes like Babe Ruth and Jesse Owens. Yet during his career playing professional baseball and football he never earned enough to support himself.
This is a biography of a person not that well-known to people these days. In his time he was a very popular figure. The author points out that this made him someone who might attract fans to games. This is a brutally honest biography of a very talented athlete who was used by unscrupulous people.
April 8, 2023
On my first night in a college dorm the RA sat everyone down and went over dorm rules; curfew, alcohol, female visitors. I think there were other rules but those were the ones I was most interested in. When the RA was done he asked, "Are there any questions?" So I raised my hand and asked, "Yeah. So why did Jim Thorpe return his medals in the first place?"
What an idiot. Even as a freshman in college I should have known that Jim Thorpe had nothing to do with returning his Olympic medals. "Path Lit by Lightning" tells of the scandalous mistreatment of Jim Thorpe by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the US government in its policy toward the Native American in general, and virtually anyone who dealt with Thorpe. Taken off an Oklahoma reservation and sent to the government-run Carlisle Indian School, Thorpe immediately excelled on their football team, once beating an Army football team that included Dwight D. Eisenhower. While at Carlisle he played minor league baseball during the summers for a few dollars a game. He also became a star in track and field later winning two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics. But a year later it was discovered that his baseball paydays disqualified him as an amateur, and his medals and world records were forfeited. But Carlisle, not Jim Thorpe, held his medals and other awards after the Olympics and they returned the medals to the IOC.
Upon leaving Carlisle Thorpe began a lifelong nomadic journey. While he was young he played professional baseball for the New York Giants and others, and professional football, pre NFL. But as his athletic abilities diminished his drinking problems made him his own worst enemy particularly as he had seven children by three marriages. He went from state to state doing every kind of job imaginable, including digging subway tunnels in New York City and even getting bad acting parts in Hollywood movies.
But in the final analysis government policy is the bad actor in its dealings with the Native American. Everything it did to protect the Native American did just the opposite. From Andrew Jackson's sentencing the Native Americans to the Trail of Tears to the deceitful treaties that placed them on reservations only to break the treaties when oil was later found or gold was discovered. Thorpe and others were sent to schools like Carlisle to assimilate them into white culture. But this was a difficult task because for centuries the Native Americans roamed the west living off the land. Thorpe's life seemed like he was following some atavistic urge.
I enjoyed immensely David Maraniss' "When Pride Still Mattered" biography of Vince Lombardi. It was the exact opposite of "Path" in that Lombardi's life built up to greatness whereas Thorpe's was a descent. I would have given "Path Lit by Lightning" (Thorpe's Native American name) a higher grade but it got repetitive following Thorpe's downward path and listing the indignities he endured. It is a very sad book. For anyone to die in poverty is unacceptable. For a national treasure like Jim Thorpe it is a tragedy.
What an idiot. Even as a freshman in college I should have known that Jim Thorpe had nothing to do with returning his Olympic medals. "Path Lit by Lightning" tells of the scandalous mistreatment of Jim Thorpe by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the US government in its policy toward the Native American in general, and virtually anyone who dealt with Thorpe. Taken off an Oklahoma reservation and sent to the government-run Carlisle Indian School, Thorpe immediately excelled on their football team, once beating an Army football team that included Dwight D. Eisenhower. While at Carlisle he played minor league baseball during the summers for a few dollars a game. He also became a star in track and field later winning two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics. But a year later it was discovered that his baseball paydays disqualified him as an amateur, and his medals and world records were forfeited. But Carlisle, not Jim Thorpe, held his medals and other awards after the Olympics and they returned the medals to the IOC.
Upon leaving Carlisle Thorpe began a lifelong nomadic journey. While he was young he played professional baseball for the New York Giants and others, and professional football, pre NFL. But as his athletic abilities diminished his drinking problems made him his own worst enemy particularly as he had seven children by three marriages. He went from state to state doing every kind of job imaginable, including digging subway tunnels in New York City and even getting bad acting parts in Hollywood movies.
But in the final analysis government policy is the bad actor in its dealings with the Native American. Everything it did to protect the Native American did just the opposite. From Andrew Jackson's sentencing the Native Americans to the Trail of Tears to the deceitful treaties that placed them on reservations only to break the treaties when oil was later found or gold was discovered. Thorpe and others were sent to schools like Carlisle to assimilate them into white culture. But this was a difficult task because for centuries the Native Americans roamed the west living off the land. Thorpe's life seemed like he was following some atavistic urge.
I enjoyed immensely David Maraniss' "When Pride Still Mattered" biography of Vince Lombardi. It was the exact opposite of "Path" in that Lombardi's life built up to greatness whereas Thorpe's was a descent. I would have given "Path Lit by Lightning" (Thorpe's Native American name) a higher grade but it got repetitive following Thorpe's downward path and listing the indignities he endured. It is a very sad book. For anyone to die in poverty is unacceptable. For a national treasure like Jim Thorpe it is a tragedy.
August 28, 2022
GOODREADS FIRST READS REVIEW
As sports became embedded within the American cultural zeitgeist at the turn of the 20th Century, one man’s raw athletic ability and accomplishments would make him a legend in his own time even while being described in disparaging language at the same time. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss follows the wandering life of the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th Century who straddled the divide between White American culture and his Native roots that mirrored thousands of others who wasn’t as well known.
Maraniss, basing the book’s title on Thorpe’s given Sac-and-Fox name, gives a very detailed chronicle of Thorpe’s life from his childhood on the reservation to attending Carlisle Indian Industrial School where is athletic prowess in first track and field then football gained national attention before his Olympic triumph followed by ‘disgrace’ then sis long professional careers in baseball, football, and even a little basketball before wandering across the country looking to make a living and get by. Yet while Thorpe the man’s story is amazing, Maraniss uses him to highlight the plight of Native Americans within the larger text of mainstream White American culture from the military and government’s treatment of tribes over history to the benign sound but cultural devastating “Kill the Indian, save the man” philosophy of Carlisle and the casual racism that the press and organized sport’s white elitism who viewed amateurism as the ideal over professionalism thus causing a 110+ year injustice. This dual purpose was executed very well by Maraniss, though I will admit that he appeared to belabor some things like his critique on historical accuracy of the 1951 Hollywood biopic because at that point the reader was in 400 pages of a biography and could tell what the inaccuracies were already. And ironically mere weeks before it’s publication some information in the biography became dated when the IOC fully restored Thorpe as sole champion and his scores of his 1912 Olympic events.
Path Lit by Lightning is not only a revealing look into the man who was head and shoulders the best athlete of his time, but also of the difficulty Native Americans dealt within as they tried to remain true to their culture while attempt to live in White American society. David Maraniss writes in a very good narrative style though at times belabors inaccuracies as if the readers didn’t pay attention in early portions of the book. Overall, highly recommend for those interested in sports biographies or Native Americans in the United States.
As sports became embedded within the American cultural zeitgeist at the turn of the 20th Century, one man’s raw athletic ability and accomplishments would make him a legend in his own time even while being described in disparaging language at the same time. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss follows the wandering life of the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th Century who straddled the divide between White American culture and his Native roots that mirrored thousands of others who wasn’t as well known.
Maraniss, basing the book’s title on Thorpe’s given Sac-and-Fox name, gives a very detailed chronicle of Thorpe’s life from his childhood on the reservation to attending Carlisle Indian Industrial School where is athletic prowess in first track and field then football gained national attention before his Olympic triumph followed by ‘disgrace’ then sis long professional careers in baseball, football, and even a little basketball before wandering across the country looking to make a living and get by. Yet while Thorpe the man’s story is amazing, Maraniss uses him to highlight the plight of Native Americans within the larger text of mainstream White American culture from the military and government’s treatment of tribes over history to the benign sound but cultural devastating “Kill the Indian, save the man” philosophy of Carlisle and the casual racism that the press and organized sport’s white elitism who viewed amateurism as the ideal over professionalism thus causing a 110+ year injustice. This dual purpose was executed very well by Maraniss, though I will admit that he appeared to belabor some things like his critique on historical accuracy of the 1951 Hollywood biopic because at that point the reader was in 400 pages of a biography and could tell what the inaccuracies were already. And ironically mere weeks before it’s publication some information in the biography became dated when the IOC fully restored Thorpe as sole champion and his scores of his 1912 Olympic events.
Path Lit by Lightning is not only a revealing look into the man who was head and shoulders the best athlete of his time, but also of the difficulty Native Americans dealt within as they tried to remain true to their culture while attempt to live in White American society. David Maraniss writes in a very good narrative style though at times belabors inaccuracies as if the readers didn’t pay attention in early portions of the book. Overall, highly recommend for those interested in sports biographies or Native Americans in the United States.
September 22, 2022
Insightful, well-told biography of Jim Thorpe who got screwed out of his Olympic medals. Lots of vivid sports descriptions of baseball and football games. The biographer has an easy-to-read prose style. I learned a lot about Jim Thorpe and admired him even more.
December 13, 2022
Ok, ever since I heard about Jim Thorpe, I wanted to learn more. I read a more kid/YA friendly biography of his life a few years back, before going to the town of Jim Thorpe in PA and learned quite a bit.
This book was like the PhD version of his life. I learned SO MUCH it was not even funny. The scholarship that went into this book must have been insane. However, it is not written in a way to alienate the reader who doesn't know much about Jim Thorpe. It's high level in scholarship, but does not talk down to its audience.
All I have to say after listening to this book is, poor Jim Thorpe. He not only HAD potential, he REALIZED it, but at such a young age, that everything else could be seen as less-than. Some of it was less-than, to be honest, but he never stopped hustling, he never gave up. He rubbed elbows with some of the BIG names of the day. Ran over some of them while playing football, lol.
This book was really, REALLY good for learning about Jim Thorpe. However, I would NOT recommend listening to it. As amazing as the author is with his compilation of data and expressing it in a way that doesn't overwhelm or insult the reader, he is NOT a professional narrator and it shows.
I listen to audio books on my insanely long commute, which takes place mostly in the dark of the morning and the dark of the night (thank you Winter), so both the time of day and the light coming down from the sky encourage sleepiness. So does the voice of this audio book. "DRYYYY EYEEEES" has NOTHING on this.
Not just the tone of voice, but also the lack of clear enunciation and diction made me try to futilely rewind and crank the volume to hear the middle and end of sentences and even doing that, I wasn't able to hear it clearly some of the time. I gave up when I realized that wrestling with the rewind and volume while hurtling down the highway at a high rate of speed was not the best idea I've ever had and so I just gave up and decided I would try to catch what I could with context clues and gracefully let the rest go.
The author is also fond of lists, which isn't a bad thing, but when the names of all of Jim Thorpe's teammates are being read in a voice that while pleasant for speaking, isn't professionally trained for reading out loud, it gets droning, very quickly.
This is also a LOOOOONG audio book, clocking in at just over 27 hours. It took me longer than 27 hours of commuting to finish this book, as when I was falling asleep, I would have to stop the book and crank loud, angry music up in it's place so I could make it to where I was going as safely as possible.
I try to be a safe driver, for both myself and the others who are on the road with me. This book made that difficult.
So, if you listen to audio books while driving, this one might be a hard pass for you. If you listen while doing chores around the house or exercising, this might work for you.
Other than that, this book is SO worth reading. I flipped through a finished copy in a brick and mortar store and the pictures were so great, I'm highly considering getting a copy for myself, which I rarely do, as shelf space is a premium in my home and this is a honker of a book.
I would highly recommend this book. It's not just about Jim Thorpe. He didn't live in a vacuum, so it does go into the times he lived in, the story of how football evolved (did you know that Jim Thorpe was the first president of what would become the NFL!?!? That's just ONE of the awesome, amazing things he did in his life.), how Native Americans were treated in sports, Hollywood and by the United States Government (which I won't get into here, but let me tell you, made me LIVID.) and the Olympics, not just the one he competed in (which he ROCKED btw).
4, this book is very well written and I highly recommend it (but maybe not the audio version), stars.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an eARC copy of this book to read and review. My thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio and libro.fm for an Advanced Audio copy of this to listen to and review.
This book was like the PhD version of his life. I learned SO MUCH it was not even funny. The scholarship that went into this book must have been insane. However, it is not written in a way to alienate the reader who doesn't know much about Jim Thorpe. It's high level in scholarship, but does not talk down to its audience.
All I have to say after listening to this book is, poor Jim Thorpe. He not only HAD potential, he REALIZED it, but at such a young age, that everything else could be seen as less-than. Some of it was less-than, to be honest, but he never stopped hustling, he never gave up. He rubbed elbows with some of the BIG names of the day. Ran over some of them while playing football, lol.
This book was really, REALLY good for learning about Jim Thorpe. However, I would NOT recommend listening to it. As amazing as the author is with his compilation of data and expressing it in a way that doesn't overwhelm or insult the reader, he is NOT a professional narrator and it shows.
I listen to audio books on my insanely long commute, which takes place mostly in the dark of the morning and the dark of the night (thank you Winter), so both the time of day and the light coming down from the sky encourage sleepiness. So does the voice of this audio book. "DRYYYY EYEEEES" has NOTHING on this.
Not just the tone of voice, but also the lack of clear enunciation and diction made me try to futilely rewind and crank the volume to hear the middle and end of sentences and even doing that, I wasn't able to hear it clearly some of the time. I gave up when I realized that wrestling with the rewind and volume while hurtling down the highway at a high rate of speed was not the best idea I've ever had and so I just gave up and decided I would try to catch what I could with context clues and gracefully let the rest go.
The author is also fond of lists, which isn't a bad thing, but when the names of all of Jim Thorpe's teammates are being read in a voice that while pleasant for speaking, isn't professionally trained for reading out loud, it gets droning, very quickly.
This is also a LOOOOONG audio book, clocking in at just over 27 hours. It took me longer than 27 hours of commuting to finish this book, as when I was falling asleep, I would have to stop the book and crank loud, angry music up in it's place so I could make it to where I was going as safely as possible.
I try to be a safe driver, for both myself and the others who are on the road with me. This book made that difficult.
So, if you listen to audio books while driving, this one might be a hard pass for you. If you listen while doing chores around the house or exercising, this might work for you.
Other than that, this book is SO worth reading. I flipped through a finished copy in a brick and mortar store and the pictures were so great, I'm highly considering getting a copy for myself, which I rarely do, as shelf space is a premium in my home and this is a honker of a book.
I would highly recommend this book. It's not just about Jim Thorpe. He didn't live in a vacuum, so it does go into the times he lived in, the story of how football evolved (did you know that Jim Thorpe was the first president of what would become the NFL!?!? That's just ONE of the awesome, amazing things he did in his life.), how Native Americans were treated in sports, Hollywood and by the United States Government (which I won't get into here, but let me tell you, made me LIVID.) and the Olympics, not just the one he competed in (which he ROCKED btw).
4, this book is very well written and I highly recommend it (but maybe not the audio version), stars.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an eARC copy of this book to read and review. My thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio and libro.fm for an Advanced Audio copy of this to listen to and review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2022
Jim Thorpe was unquestionably the greatest male American athlete in the first half of the 20th century. Having achieved success in both college and professional football as well as baseball and track and field, his life and career would seem to be one filled with glory. Sadly, that was not the case and this very good biography written by David Maraniss brings Thorpe’s life into focus complete with the many downfalls into the myths around the Sac and Fox indigenous American.
Having read Maraniss’s excellent biography on Roberto Clemente, I expected more of the same in this book. Many sections lived up to that expectation, especially when it came to describing Thorpe’s baseball career. This was of particular interest for me since it was his participation in the lower levels of professional baseball that led to Thorpe being stripped of his gold medals for track and field in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. Maraniss’s writing on the part of the Games’ officials to ensure that the amateurism of the games remained was both brilliant and maddening as was the description of the responses by the football coach of the Carlisle School, Pop Warner.
Other parts of the book that deserve special mention for their excellent writing and research were those on the Carlisle School, where Thorpe and other Native Americans were being taught how to live in the America that was being shaped by white leaders. It did not make for happy reading, nor did the sections on Thorpe’s personal struggles with alcoholism. Also troubling for Thorpe was trying to hold his marriage together with his first wife and their children. While life for any professional athlete’s family is hard, Thorpe’s life of playing both professional baseball and football made it even harder on that family. Especially for baseball, where Thorpe was often released from a team before the family had a chance to settle.
The writing on his athletic career mirrors how Maraniss covered every other aspect of the book – very detailed and mostly informative, but at times it felt bogged down in too much detail. This was also the feeling I had while reading of the many injustices suffered by Thorpe and others at Carlisle. It needed to be told but at times it felt like just too much after understanding what was being said. This is not to say that it was bad, but just that the message came across easily without extra minutia.
Even at this length, this is a book that is certainly worth the time to read if one has any interest in Thorpe, the history behind his loss of his Olympic winnings or even the treatment of Native Americans at that point in American history. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time with the book.
I wish to thank Simon and Schuster for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
Having read Maraniss’s excellent biography on Roberto Clemente, I expected more of the same in this book. Many sections lived up to that expectation, especially when it came to describing Thorpe’s baseball career. This was of particular interest for me since it was his participation in the lower levels of professional baseball that led to Thorpe being stripped of his gold medals for track and field in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. Maraniss’s writing on the part of the Games’ officials to ensure that the amateurism of the games remained was both brilliant and maddening as was the description of the responses by the football coach of the Carlisle School, Pop Warner.
Other parts of the book that deserve special mention for their excellent writing and research were those on the Carlisle School, where Thorpe and other Native Americans were being taught how to live in the America that was being shaped by white leaders. It did not make for happy reading, nor did the sections on Thorpe’s personal struggles with alcoholism. Also troubling for Thorpe was trying to hold his marriage together with his first wife and their children. While life for any professional athlete’s family is hard, Thorpe’s life of playing both professional baseball and football made it even harder on that family. Especially for baseball, where Thorpe was often released from a team before the family had a chance to settle.
The writing on his athletic career mirrors how Maraniss covered every other aspect of the book – very detailed and mostly informative, but at times it felt bogged down in too much detail. This was also the feeling I had while reading of the many injustices suffered by Thorpe and others at Carlisle. It needed to be told but at times it felt like just too much after understanding what was being said. This is not to say that it was bad, but just that the message came across easily without extra minutia.
Even at this length, this is a book that is certainly worth the time to read if one has any interest in Thorpe, the history behind his loss of his Olympic winnings or even the treatment of Native Americans at that point in American history. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time with the book.
I wish to thank Simon and Schuster for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
June 9, 2023
The fourth star is probably for degree of difficulty. The author won't abandon his subject after Chronicle in Jim Thorpe's most glorious accomplishments. He takes the reader along for the every day reality that constituted the rest of Jim's life. He mingles Thorpe's inborn dignity with the indignities that defined his circumstances. Could have been shorter and more tightly edited if the author's final work hadn't spent quite so much time on Carlisle as an institution.
October 19, 2022
A Complete Biography
I thoroughly enjoyed the spoke about Jim Thorpe
The author spend a credible amount of time researching to the smallest level of detail. This surprised me because it brings his entire life into the story, including his relationship with his Indian brothers and sisters.
Exceptionally well written, and very enjoyable.
I highly Recommend
I thoroughly enjoyed the spoke about Jim Thorpe
The author spend a credible amount of time researching to the smallest level of detail. This surprised me because it brings his entire life into the story, including his relationship with his Indian brothers and sisters.
Exceptionally well written, and very enjoyable.
I highly Recommend
January 4, 2023
I was excited for this one, as I taught about Thorpe a lot in various history classes, and I've always found the history of the Carlisle Indian School to be fascinating. However, this book is simply too long, and parts of it really drag. The core flaw of this book is one that many biographers fall into: it's too often a catalogue of the subject's life rather than a narrative the focus more on illustrative moments or periods and condenses less interesting or salient stuff. For instance, there's about as much on Jim's Olympic triumph and his period at the Carlisle school as there is on his far less interesting post-retirement jobs, including his participation in the making of an autobiographical movie about himself. I found myself frankly worn out by long sections of this book that simply chronicle his life. Also, while Thorpe was far from a simple man, I don't think he was particularly compelling as an individual. He didn't have a lot of big ideas or a super-strong mission for himself; even sports was something he kind of fell into rather than pursued as a career. So it's a long book about a person whose main goal for most of his life was to retire and raise hunting dogs on a lodge in Florida.
That being said, there's still a lot of interesting stuff here, and the Thorpe story can be a great vehicle for studying Indian history in the 21st century. You learn a lot about the relatively short-lived Carlisle school, and Maraniss effectively demythologizes Pop Warner, who used up young Indian men but didn't help them much in life. For example, Warner feigned ignorance of Thorpe playing minor league ball (thereby violating standards of amateurism and costing him his gold medals) even though he definitely knew what Thorpe was doing, and he didn't do much to defend his star athlete. The point of this school as a whole was a somewhat brutal assimilation, or "killing the Indian to save the man."
Jim never lost his pride in being a Native American though, and the strong suit of this book is its examination of Indian history in this period. Jim's early career spanned the end of the frontier and the signing of the Dawes Act, and most white Americans at the time viewed Indians as something between a novelty, an extinct species, a social problem, and a still dangerous threat. Maraniss shows that Indian stereotypes colored people's views of Jim to an almost blinding degree; this was particularly egregious with sportswriters' incessant references to "the warpath," "savage braves," "taking scalps," and so on. White Americans wanted to stare at Indians, watch them perform, romanticize them, lament their current state (especially alcoholism, a problem Jim suffered), but they rarely wanted to see them as full people and citizens. Jim fought against all of this throughout his life while at times leaning into these expectations to make money, and his loss of the gold medal probably had something to do with his background.
The book also examines Thorpe the incredible, multi-faceted athlete, as well as the development of football at the time. These sections are interesting, but I was fairly familiar with the basic story. A huge chunk of the book is devoted to Jim's lackluster baseball career, which was largely spent in the minors. I thought it unfortunate that Jim didn't come along when pro football was a more robust career, as he spent his prime years playing what was probably his worst sport.
I might be judging this book a little harshly in part because I knew some of the story already. If you don't know much about sport and Indian history in this time period, you may enjoy this. I didn't dislike it; I just found it fine, even a little sad, given that Jim's life remained unstable pretty much until he died.
That being said, there's still a lot of interesting stuff here, and the Thorpe story can be a great vehicle for studying Indian history in the 21st century. You learn a lot about the relatively short-lived Carlisle school, and Maraniss effectively demythologizes Pop Warner, who used up young Indian men but didn't help them much in life. For example, Warner feigned ignorance of Thorpe playing minor league ball (thereby violating standards of amateurism and costing him his gold medals) even though he definitely knew what Thorpe was doing, and he didn't do much to defend his star athlete. The point of this school as a whole was a somewhat brutal assimilation, or "killing the Indian to save the man."
Jim never lost his pride in being a Native American though, and the strong suit of this book is its examination of Indian history in this period. Jim's early career spanned the end of the frontier and the signing of the Dawes Act, and most white Americans at the time viewed Indians as something between a novelty, an extinct species, a social problem, and a still dangerous threat. Maraniss shows that Indian stereotypes colored people's views of Jim to an almost blinding degree; this was particularly egregious with sportswriters' incessant references to "the warpath," "savage braves," "taking scalps," and so on. White Americans wanted to stare at Indians, watch them perform, romanticize them, lament their current state (especially alcoholism, a problem Jim suffered), but they rarely wanted to see them as full people and citizens. Jim fought against all of this throughout his life while at times leaning into these expectations to make money, and his loss of the gold medal probably had something to do with his background.
The book also examines Thorpe the incredible, multi-faceted athlete, as well as the development of football at the time. These sections are interesting, but I was fairly familiar with the basic story. A huge chunk of the book is devoted to Jim's lackluster baseball career, which was largely spent in the minors. I thought it unfortunate that Jim didn't come along when pro football was a more robust career, as he spent his prime years playing what was probably his worst sport.
I might be judging this book a little harshly in part because I knew some of the story already. If you don't know much about sport and Indian history in this time period, you may enjoy this. I didn't dislike it; I just found it fine, even a little sad, given that Jim's life remained unstable pretty much until he died.
Want to read
December 14, 2022The inimitable Nancy Pearl (she of Book Lust et al.) interviewed Author David Maraniss about this wonderful book here.
November 17, 2022
I'm not one for sports, but Thorpe's life is so epic and tragic and captures a pretty vivid moment in history. Maraniss keeps the book moving at a fast pace and portrays Thorpe as a realistic, whole person, never shying away from the ways racism affected his personal and professional life. Descriptions of how Thorpe influenced the sports of his day, including descriptions of several games, were accessible to me, a person who does not watch sports. It held my interest.
October 28, 2022
Before the great Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams, before the great Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath, before the great Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, America had its greatest sports hero in Jim Thorpe. His unparalleled talents enabled him to excel at multiple sports, and Maraniss approaches Thorpe’s remarkable life through both a historical reckoning of the difficult eras he lived through and a thoughtful examination of the man encompassed within aspects of his own mythmaking. Although sometimes Maraniss made his narrative a labor to plow through, he had me eager to immerse in his admiration of Thorpe’s journey to survive.
Born in 1887 as a member of the Sac and Fox nation in the Oklahoma territory, Thorpe’s Native American name was Wa-tho-Huk, meaning “path lit by lightning.” Orphaned in his teens, he was sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania where his legend began. He excelled on the football gridiron and at track and field under the coaching of the fabled figure himself, Pop Warner. In 1912 at the Stockholm Olympics, Thorpe elevated to worldwide fame with his record-shattering performances in taking the gold in the decathlon and pentathlon. Witnessing Thorpe’s athletic prowess, the King of Sweden declared him the “world’s greatest athlete.”
He returned to America a celebrity, which only increased with his continued football dominance at Carlisle where he twice became a consensus All-American. However, controversy arose when the media revealed his playing minor league baseball, as many college students did in those days while still retaining their amateur status. Even after the unjust confiscation of his Olympic medals and trophies, Thorpe did not allow the setback to prevent him from forging his name as a pioneer of the NFL and a solid major league baseball player.
In the early days of pro sports, Thorpe mirrored many athletes, constantly moving from team to team, city to city. For Thorpe, his itinerant and nomadic odyssey as a player had him struggling to stay afloat with stable income, even though he earned admiration from every player, coach, and sportswriter as the greatest football halfback and kicker the game had ever seen. But when asked about his favorite sport, he confessed his uncontested love for fishing and hunting.
His constant movement prevented him from ever settling, which often kept him apart from his children, but not estranged. His nonstop lifestyle and lack of money strained him through three marriages. Soft-spoken, gentle, humble, and generous to a fault, Jim was transformative with fierceness and tenacity whether on a field or track, but he often became cantankerous, flinty, and volatile when inebriated due to his lifelong struggles with alcohol.
Although he never gained financial stability, he demonstrated a resilience to keep hustling at what he did best: perform at athletics and move forward in the face of hardship. As a Native American, his entire life was marked by struggles against the forces of cruel assimilation tactics, white expectations, and outright bigotry and racism. In many ways, his remarkable ability to persevere offers a microcosm of countless Native Americans who faced unspeakable acts of genocide and still found strength to succeed and preserve their identity in a white world.
Maraniss succeeds in giving us a comprehensive epic that honors America’s greatest sports hero by chronicling Thorpe’s peerless accomplishments and subsequent misfortunes and also separating fact from myth. Nothing about Thorpe’s athletic achievements is necessarily hyperbolic; it’s just how the legend developed that Maraniss offers clarification. His study of Thorpe’s life is fascinating and enlightening, even if at time his ornate sentences and odd syntactical choices made for some challenges in the narrative’s flow.
Whatever his shortcomings, I loved how Maraniss captured the superhuman-like talents Thorpe possessed, but also showed him battling his human flaws like we all do. What impressed me most is how Maraniss offers perspective of the oftentimes insurmountable injustices Native Americans such as Thorpe faced, and yet they demonstrated their strength and fought back to demand their recognition as America’s first citizens and as rightful stewards of their tribal identities and hallowed lands.
Born in 1887 as a member of the Sac and Fox nation in the Oklahoma territory, Thorpe’s Native American name was Wa-tho-Huk, meaning “path lit by lightning.” Orphaned in his teens, he was sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania where his legend began. He excelled on the football gridiron and at track and field under the coaching of the fabled figure himself, Pop Warner. In 1912 at the Stockholm Olympics, Thorpe elevated to worldwide fame with his record-shattering performances in taking the gold in the decathlon and pentathlon. Witnessing Thorpe’s athletic prowess, the King of Sweden declared him the “world’s greatest athlete.”
He returned to America a celebrity, which only increased with his continued football dominance at Carlisle where he twice became a consensus All-American. However, controversy arose when the media revealed his playing minor league baseball, as many college students did in those days while still retaining their amateur status. Even after the unjust confiscation of his Olympic medals and trophies, Thorpe did not allow the setback to prevent him from forging his name as a pioneer of the NFL and a solid major league baseball player.
In the early days of pro sports, Thorpe mirrored many athletes, constantly moving from team to team, city to city. For Thorpe, his itinerant and nomadic odyssey as a player had him struggling to stay afloat with stable income, even though he earned admiration from every player, coach, and sportswriter as the greatest football halfback and kicker the game had ever seen. But when asked about his favorite sport, he confessed his uncontested love for fishing and hunting.
His constant movement prevented him from ever settling, which often kept him apart from his children, but not estranged. His nonstop lifestyle and lack of money strained him through three marriages. Soft-spoken, gentle, humble, and generous to a fault, Jim was transformative with fierceness and tenacity whether on a field or track, but he often became cantankerous, flinty, and volatile when inebriated due to his lifelong struggles with alcohol.
Although he never gained financial stability, he demonstrated a resilience to keep hustling at what he did best: perform at athletics and move forward in the face of hardship. As a Native American, his entire life was marked by struggles against the forces of cruel assimilation tactics, white expectations, and outright bigotry and racism. In many ways, his remarkable ability to persevere offers a microcosm of countless Native Americans who faced unspeakable acts of genocide and still found strength to succeed and preserve their identity in a white world.
Maraniss succeeds in giving us a comprehensive epic that honors America’s greatest sports hero by chronicling Thorpe’s peerless accomplishments and subsequent misfortunes and also separating fact from myth. Nothing about Thorpe’s athletic achievements is necessarily hyperbolic; it’s just how the legend developed that Maraniss offers clarification. His study of Thorpe’s life is fascinating and enlightening, even if at time his ornate sentences and odd syntactical choices made for some challenges in the narrative’s flow.
Whatever his shortcomings, I loved how Maraniss captured the superhuman-like talents Thorpe possessed, but also showed him battling his human flaws like we all do. What impressed me most is how Maraniss offers perspective of the oftentimes insurmountable injustices Native Americans such as Thorpe faced, and yet they demonstrated their strength and fought back to demand their recognition as America’s first citizens and as rightful stewards of their tribal identities and hallowed lands.
January 5, 2025
This was disappointing. I loved Maranniss’s bio of Roberto Clemente, but this one was tedious and cumbersome. It read almost like a daily log instead of a narrative.
June 25, 2022
Thank you Simon & Schuster, David Maraniss and Goodreads for an advanced copy of the book to review.
David Maraniss has written an extremely detailed and enjoyable biography about the legendary Jim Thorpe. His life swung back and forth between extreme highs and lows. I noticed several of these arcs that stood out throughout the book that I will discuss below.
First, Thorpe's education at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvannia had a profound impact on his life both for better and worse. Like other Native Americans that went to the school, Thorpe received a western education. However, he was forced to speak English and adopt American customs, dress, etc.,. The unoffical motto of the school was 'kill the Indian, save the man'. Cultural genocide was the order of the day. The school was a former military base and was run on military lines. Ironically, Thorpe cited this as one of the greatest times of his life (discovery as an athlete?).
While at school, Jim's athletic abilities were noticed and his path to athletic greatness was laid. He started playing a variety of sports including track and field, football, baseball and athletic marathons as well. He became a prized member of the football team, which was legendary. It famously beat the army football team in 1912. This was a symbolic win for the Native Americans over the US army and a high point for Thorpe.
The second major arc was his participation at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and later participation in professional sports. Thorpe won medals at Stockholm. Winning gold medals for the decatholon and pentatholon. He also received awards from the kings or Sweden and Russia. King Gustav of Sweden supposedly told him that he was the best athlete in the world while presenting him Sweden's trophy.
After returning back home to a hero's welcome in Boston and New York, his professional participation in football and baseball led to a lengthy sports career. Over the next several decades, he would play and occasionally coach a long list of teams. Sports would remain one of the few constants throughout the remainder of his life.
The good times did not last long, however. In less than a year, he would be stripped of his medals and titles. A newspaper reported that he had previously played in a local baseball league and was paid for it. The olympics were supposed to be 'amateur' competitions and anyone that played for money was considered professional. Jim had played under his own name but was not paid. The school received the money. Regardless, the medals were taken.
The final arc was his slow descent from greatness and eventual death. Thorpe started playing in professional football and baseball leagues. He ended up in local obscure leagues simply trying to make a living. The final decades of his life were a mixture of holding
menial jobs (ex. street repair), hustling and playing in various low level leagues.
Thorpe had wanted to be buried in his native Oklahoma after his death. Unfortunately, his burial became another chance to exploit his name and legacy. His wife tried to make money off of her deceased husband by agreeing to have him buried in an obscure town in Pennsylvannia. The town renamed itself Jim Thorpe. His grave was supposed to be the main attraction of the town and draw in tourists. This did not happen. Instead, his family has been fighting with the town for decades trying to get him reburied in Oklahoma.
The author goes into great detail about Thorpe's professional career. He played on many football and baseball teams. He played on some for years and others for a much shorter period. Discussing all of this in detail slowed the pace of the book down. I think some of it could have been removed or referenced in an appendix.
Maraniss does not paint Thorpe as a saint. He identifies his fight with alcoholism, abandoning his family and spending issues that were ongoing struggles. The character of Thorpe is weaved throughout the book and not reduced to several paragraphs or pages. His stoicism, forgiving nature, willing to assist others and lack of ego are interesting characteristics that surface repeatedly. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew Jim Thorpe.
David Maraniss has written an extremely detailed and enjoyable biography about the legendary Jim Thorpe. His life swung back and forth between extreme highs and lows. I noticed several of these arcs that stood out throughout the book that I will discuss below.
First, Thorpe's education at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvannia had a profound impact on his life both for better and worse. Like other Native Americans that went to the school, Thorpe received a western education. However, he was forced to speak English and adopt American customs, dress, etc.,. The unoffical motto of the school was 'kill the Indian, save the man'. Cultural genocide was the order of the day. The school was a former military base and was run on military lines. Ironically, Thorpe cited this as one of the greatest times of his life (discovery as an athlete?).
While at school, Jim's athletic abilities were noticed and his path to athletic greatness was laid. He started playing a variety of sports including track and field, football, baseball and athletic marathons as well. He became a prized member of the football team, which was legendary. It famously beat the army football team in 1912. This was a symbolic win for the Native Americans over the US army and a high point for Thorpe.
The second major arc was his participation at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and later participation in professional sports. Thorpe won medals at Stockholm. Winning gold medals for the decatholon and pentatholon. He also received awards from the kings or Sweden and Russia. King Gustav of Sweden supposedly told him that he was the best athlete in the world while presenting him Sweden's trophy.
After returning back home to a hero's welcome in Boston and New York, his professional participation in football and baseball led to a lengthy sports career. Over the next several decades, he would play and occasionally coach a long list of teams. Sports would remain one of the few constants throughout the remainder of his life.
The good times did not last long, however. In less than a year, he would be stripped of his medals and titles. A newspaper reported that he had previously played in a local baseball league and was paid for it. The olympics were supposed to be 'amateur' competitions and anyone that played for money was considered professional. Jim had played under his own name but was not paid. The school received the money. Regardless, the medals were taken.
The final arc was his slow descent from greatness and eventual death. Thorpe started playing in professional football and baseball leagues. He ended up in local obscure leagues simply trying to make a living. The final decades of his life were a mixture of holding
menial jobs (ex. street repair), hustling and playing in various low level leagues.
Thorpe had wanted to be buried in his native Oklahoma after his death. Unfortunately, his burial became another chance to exploit his name and legacy. His wife tried to make money off of her deceased husband by agreeing to have him buried in an obscure town in Pennsylvannia. The town renamed itself Jim Thorpe. His grave was supposed to be the main attraction of the town and draw in tourists. This did not happen. Instead, his family has been fighting with the town for decades trying to get him reburied in Oklahoma.
The author goes into great detail about Thorpe's professional career. He played on many football and baseball teams. He played on some for years and others for a much shorter period. Discussing all of this in detail slowed the pace of the book down. I think some of it could have been removed or referenced in an appendix.
Maraniss does not paint Thorpe as a saint. He identifies his fight with alcoholism, abandoning his family and spending issues that were ongoing struggles. The character of Thorpe is weaved throughout the book and not reduced to several paragraphs or pages. His stoicism, forgiving nature, willing to assist others and lack of ego are interesting characteristics that surface repeatedly. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew Jim Thorpe.
January 6, 2023
I am very mixed about this book. On one hand, Maraniss, as he notes in his epilogue, spent a long time consulting Indigenous activists and experts alongside librarians and archivists in order to complete this book, and there are references in the back which is appreciated. The book is nearly 600 pages and Maraniss goes to great lengths to contextualize a lot of the events Thrope went through. Some are more important than others (i.e. which football team first began using the forward pass!). But, on the other hand, I think Thorpe's own life, voice, and place get lost - with the exception of two chapters that are largely just letters he wrote to a partner. My final issue is that while this book goes to lengths to point out the racism and stereotypes Thorpe faced, it still very much is a western narrative of an Indigenous man in America. Perhaps other books or authors provide an Indigenous worldview on Thorpe's life that this book does not engage with - indeed, Thorpe's Indigenity sometimes falls to the wayside as Maraniss focuses on other tangents and topics.
May 5, 2023
Jim Thorpe was a remarkable individual, and though I occasionally wished that this biography swept me up in its retelling of events a little bit more, I still learned a ton and I'm so glad I read this. Thorpe's life had many moments of triumph, and even more of heartbreak and foiled dreams, but I'm taking away a sense of someone who kept on striving, and I'm grateful that Maraniss put that lens on his story. But one of the defining themes of Thorpe's history is the way that others in his orbit continually tried to define him and his legacy, used his image, and made choices they thought best for him, both before and after he died - all of which calls into question the very concept of an outsider interpreting his life in a book in the first place. But there's no avoiding this aspect of biography, Maraniss certainly doesn't shy away from reminding us of it, and Jim Thorpe is someone who shouldn't be forgotten. It just leaves you with a lot to think about!
To note: even though this book came out last year, it still wasn't published recently enough to account for the absurdly late reinstatement of Thorpe as sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon events in the 1912 Olympic Games. I'm lucky that I was able to read this book knowing that the International Olympic Committee finally voted to make this change. It is, at least, one less thing to be infuriated about.
To note: even though this book came out last year, it still wasn't published recently enough to account for the absurdly late reinstatement of Thorpe as sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon events in the 1912 Olympic Games. I'm lucky that I was able to read this book knowing that the International Olympic Committee finally voted to make this change. It is, at least, one less thing to be infuriated about.
August 9, 2022
Note: I received this book as an advance copy from Goodreads.
This is the first time I read a book by award winning author-editor David Maraniss, and the book did not disappoint. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe is an incredibly detailed biography of an internationally renowned athlete whose reputation as a dominant figure in multiple sports was frequently overshadowed by his Native American ancestry. The book’s title emphasizes this overshadowing, as it is one translation of his Sac and Fox name, Wa-Tho-Huk.
I won’t roll off additional facts about Jim Thorpe, as the book does this plenty, dispelling myths about his life while adding concrete dates and locations to the lore. Maraniss has clearly done his research, more so than any previous writer of a Thorpe biography. The information on Thorpe’s relatives, teammates, coaches, and failed business ventures clears up the mistruths floating around the internet, originally propagated by contemporaries of Thorpe and the man himself. At a certain point, the barrage of clarifications becomes too much.
This book has everything. Dysfunctional families. Indian boarding schools. Football. Baseball. The 1912 Olympics. The King of Sweden. The Worcester Telegram (a newspaper that treated me much better as an athlete than it did to Thorpe). A honeymoon tour of Pompeii. Nazis. The founding of the NFL. Alcohol. Lots and lots of lying. NAGPRA. Muhammed Ali. Fifty pages of endnotes. If you are looking for a light expansion of Thorpe’s Wikipedia page, this is not your book.
In summary, I appreciated the effort that went into this in-depth and comprehensive book. Maraniss is clearly a phenomenal researcher and deserving of his past awards. However, this book is not the best choice for all readers. Those looking for an intense, immersive experience will enjoy the ten or more hours spent with this book. Others with less interest would do better with a shorter read.
Click here to view this review on my blog.
This is the first time I read a book by award winning author-editor David Maraniss, and the book did not disappoint. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe is an incredibly detailed biography of an internationally renowned athlete whose reputation as a dominant figure in multiple sports was frequently overshadowed by his Native American ancestry. The book’s title emphasizes this overshadowing, as it is one translation of his Sac and Fox name, Wa-Tho-Huk.
I won’t roll off additional facts about Jim Thorpe, as the book does this plenty, dispelling myths about his life while adding concrete dates and locations to the lore. Maraniss has clearly done his research, more so than any previous writer of a Thorpe biography. The information on Thorpe’s relatives, teammates, coaches, and failed business ventures clears up the mistruths floating around the internet, originally propagated by contemporaries of Thorpe and the man himself. At a certain point, the barrage of clarifications becomes too much.
This book has everything. Dysfunctional families. Indian boarding schools. Football. Baseball. The 1912 Olympics. The King of Sweden. The Worcester Telegram (a newspaper that treated me much better as an athlete than it did to Thorpe). A honeymoon tour of Pompeii. Nazis. The founding of the NFL. Alcohol. Lots and lots of lying. NAGPRA. Muhammed Ali. Fifty pages of endnotes. If you are looking for a light expansion of Thorpe’s Wikipedia page, this is not your book.
In summary, I appreciated the effort that went into this in-depth and comprehensive book. Maraniss is clearly a phenomenal researcher and deserving of his past awards. However, this book is not the best choice for all readers. Those looking for an intense, immersive experience will enjoy the ten or more hours spent with this book. Others with less interest would do better with a shorter read.
Click here to view this review on my blog.
October 2, 2022
The author did a superb job of researching the life of Jim Thorpe who was an amazing athlete in multiple sports but who spent a good part of the rest of his life trying to scrape by. Thorpe got spun by lots of people. Perhaps the longest irritant in Thorpe's life was the removal of his Olympic medals where he set records in the Decathlon and Pentathlon and then was stripped of his honors. The IOC and the AAU penalized Thorpe after the 1912 Olympics for his supposed violation of amateur status in two seasons of a minor league baseball. In spite of the rules of the IOC which required a decision shortly after the medals were awarded, Thorpe's medals were yanked two years after the Olympics.
There are some evil people in the narrative especially Avery Brundage, the AAU and IOC official who consistently frustrated attempts to gain justice for Thorpe. But a host of others including his third wife Patsy - exploited Thorpe. Even after his death Thorpe's remains were fought over and eventually interred in a town he had never visited.
The other overlay for this story is the varying interpretations how to treat Native American rights. Thorpe started to be noticed while a student as the Carlisle Indian School where he played multiple sports. Was the purpose of the school to assimilate Native Americans? The first superintendent was for assimilation. The next took an opposite position.
This is a very long book. I think as a result of all the myths surrounding Thorpe's numerous accomplishments even after this long book we see a tragic figure of great abilities but with uncertainties about both his real record and the effects of his life.
There are some evil people in the narrative especially Avery Brundage, the AAU and IOC official who consistently frustrated attempts to gain justice for Thorpe. But a host of others including his third wife Patsy - exploited Thorpe. Even after his death Thorpe's remains were fought over and eventually interred in a town he had never visited.
The other overlay for this story is the varying interpretations how to treat Native American rights. Thorpe started to be noticed while a student as the Carlisle Indian School where he played multiple sports. Was the purpose of the school to assimilate Native Americans? The first superintendent was for assimilation. The next took an opposite position.
This is a very long book. I think as a result of all the myths surrounding Thorpe's numerous accomplishments even after this long book we see a tragic figure of great abilities but with uncertainties about both his real record and the effects of his life.
November 27, 2024
Author David Maraniss meticulously separates myth from reality in telling the story of Jim Thorpe, the legendary athlete of the early 20th century. I’ve read some accounts of Thorpe, but the reporting usually ends at the conclusion of his days at Carlisle Indian School. His later life, other than the fact that he played pro football and Major League Baseball, is usually glossed over until he dies in a trailer park with little money to his name. And then there is controversy over his bones and final resting place. This book fills in the gaps, for better or worse. Upon finishing, it’s hard ti evaluate whether his story is triumphant or a tragedy. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. That’s part of what this book is all about, to give you the tools to decide for yourself.
July 9, 2022
Sympathetic to Thorpe’s plight and other Native Americans, Maraniss’ well-researched biography draws on rich primary source materials to supply information on Thorpe as well as important figures and events of the time. One hundred and ten years after Jim Thorpe’s victories plans are still under way to restore his records because, though the IOC finally gave medals to his family in 1983, Thorpe’s results are still not part of the Olympic record. Read more details about this important book on my blog: https://shouldireaditornot.wordpress....
April 2, 2024
Very thorough, very long. I liked the portrayal of Jim in his younger years--his confidence and his attractive personality. I also loved his first wife. His second wife was too young but I think they did love each other. His third wife was a promoter and very strong so that gets in the way of whether they were in love or not? At that point, Jim got a couple of facelifts. I thought that was sad. It was also sad that it took so long for the Olympic medals to get returned to the family (after his death). Another tragedy is that he is buried STILL in Pennsylvania rather than Oklahoma which was his wish. The story is spectacularly complicated but Jim holds his place in history and that is a good thing. The author mentioned several times how Jim was an unreliable narrator, not even clear on his own birthdate. The author describes trying to decipher what was mythology while doing his research. The end of the book was very hopeful as Jim's descendants have all gone on to make their positive mark on the world. The condescension toward Jim and making him into a "curiosity" are heartbreaking. Still, Jim just kept on going and did the best that he could. He was a great man.
Videos I shared at the library when talking about this book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zVXH...
https://davidmaraniss.com/about/
Videos I shared at the library when talking about this book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zVXH...
https://davidmaraniss.com/about/
May 13, 2023
This is the view of the man Jim Thorpe from 30 feet and from 30,000 feet.
There are quite a few of Thorpe's letters preserved that cover nearly 25 years of his life.
Two of his wives give strong supporting evidence of the trials that he faced.
Thorpe is not alone in being an exploited athlete that was once worshiped, then later discarded by his "handlers".
Since he lived at the beginning of the 20th century, just in the shadow of the Native American ethnic cleansing in the United States, he faced the prejudices that still lingered there. He had that extra weight to carry.
I was simply amazed at the number of baseball clubs that picked him up, and cut him so quickly, keeping his struggle to move forward even more difficult.
Sadly left out of this book is one account from Lawrence S. Ritter's "The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It", that tells of an experience that one of Thorpe's Major League roommates had with him. It told of one day when speaking in the hotel room where they were staying, Thorpe simply broke into tears when retelling the pain of how it felt to have his Olympic medals and trophies taken from him. That story was as telling, and as moving as anything in this book here.
There are quite a few of Thorpe's letters preserved that cover nearly 25 years of his life.
Two of his wives give strong supporting evidence of the trials that he faced.
Thorpe is not alone in being an exploited athlete that was once worshiped, then later discarded by his "handlers".
Since he lived at the beginning of the 20th century, just in the shadow of the Native American ethnic cleansing in the United States, he faced the prejudices that still lingered there. He had that extra weight to carry.
I was simply amazed at the number of baseball clubs that picked him up, and cut him so quickly, keeping his struggle to move forward even more difficult.
Sadly left out of this book is one account from Lawrence S. Ritter's "The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It", that tells of an experience that one of Thorpe's Major League roommates had with him. It told of one day when speaking in the hotel room where they were staying, Thorpe simply broke into tears when retelling the pain of how it felt to have his Olympic medals and trophies taken from him. That story was as telling, and as moving as anything in this book here.
October 1, 2022
Thanks to the author, Simon & Schuster, and Goodreads for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I have to admit that I didn't know much about Jim Thorpe before reading this book. The book is very thorough and tells you all about him from his birth right up until the present. I highly recommend this book especially for people that enjoy biographies. 4.25 🌟
I have to admit that I didn't know much about Jim Thorpe before reading this book. The book is very thorough and tells you all about him from his birth right up until the present. I highly recommend this book especially for people that enjoy biographies. 4.25 🌟
November 1, 2022
Path Lit by Lightning is a fascinating examination of Jim Thorpe's life and a thorough indictment of U.S. mistreatment of Native Americans. It also provides a lively picture of the brutal early days of professional football (Thorpe was the president of the NFL's precursor group) and the already-hypocritical and tone-deaf world of amateur athletics.
The biography is also an impressive bit of story telling in that Jim Thorpe's greatest athletic accomplishments (i.e. most of the heroics and drama) occurred in his 20s and 30s, but Maraniss weaves a compelling story of Thorpe's life up to and beyond his death in 1953 at the age of 66.
The author does a fine job narrating his own work here, but I wonder what a professional could have done with this rich material!
The biography is also an impressive bit of story telling in that Jim Thorpe's greatest athletic accomplishments (i.e. most of the heroics and drama) occurred in his 20s and 30s, but Maraniss weaves a compelling story of Thorpe's life up to and beyond his death in 1953 at the age of 66.
The author does a fine job narrating his own work here, but I wonder what a professional could have done with this rich material!
September 30, 2024
SO good. I’m a sports fan which definitely helped but I appreciate a thorough, well-researched book that doesn’t feel like I’m studying for an exam. This was so easy to stay dialed-in on and so fascinating. I’m going to be that person that just randomly brings up Jim Thorpe facts at parties now. And god help them if they’ve never heard of Jim Thorpe.
August 12, 2022
Path Lit by Lightning will surely reward any student of American history. Maraniss's style is both personable and sympathetic to Thorpe, who seemed to have spent his entire life in varying states of exploitation.
With his first title since the race riots of mid-2020, Maraniss cannot resist the impulse persistently to bang his readers over the head with how not racist he is. Mainly he does this by plucking the low-hanging fruit of racial attitudes of a century ago and exposing them to the unsparing light of 2022, with its positive obsession with race. An otherwise outstanding volume suffers for it.
There are two ironies to these ham-handed lectures. First, there is an inconsistency between, on the one hand, castigating early-20th-century American society for keeping "the Indian" at a distance by assuming his fascination with totem poles, teepees, and war whoops, and on the other hand, setting Indian names in italics — Thorpe's was Wa-tho-Huk, "path lit by lightning" — throughout the entire book. It is hard to blame an author for what may have been a publisher's stylistic decision, but it grates all the same. And Maraniss compromises his message about Thorpe's endless exploitation by himself exploiting Thorpe, who in this too-long book often seems like a vehicle for the author to display his antiracist bona fides.
On occasion, the demand for racism exceeds the supply, and Maraniss overreaches. He quotes part of a Philadelphia Inquirer column: “The Indians are a strong drawing card wherever they go. They are not held down by any eligibility code or amateur rules. They are just Indians, and the best team possible is gotten together respective from where the material comes. Thus to be beaten by the red men is not counted as a blemish upon a college team’s escutcheon.” The column's author was rehearsing the gripe, common in that time, that the Carlisle School's football team on which Thorpe played, despite competing against other college teams, did not consider itself bound by typical eligibility rules, resulting in the use of some players in their mid-20s who often played for more than four years. There surely were examples of degradation printed in widely circulated media back then, but this column was not one of them.
In a speech, Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle School, said, “United States, united people. How can we be made and keep our people united if we educate and train them to differences?” A century later, with Brown v. Board of Education and its rejection of the loathsome doctrine of “separate but equal” all but forgotten, we have returned to educating and training American citizens to identify themselves primarily by their differences at the expense of an American identity.
What would Jim Thorpe, who represented the United States of America in Stockholm before he became a citizen, have to say about the extraordinary story of his life being used to divide rather than to unite?
With his first title since the race riots of mid-2020, Maraniss cannot resist the impulse persistently to bang his readers over the head with how not racist he is. Mainly he does this by plucking the low-hanging fruit of racial attitudes of a century ago and exposing them to the unsparing light of 2022, with its positive obsession with race. An otherwise outstanding volume suffers for it.
There are two ironies to these ham-handed lectures. First, there is an inconsistency between, on the one hand, castigating early-20th-century American society for keeping "the Indian" at a distance by assuming his fascination with totem poles, teepees, and war whoops, and on the other hand, setting Indian names in italics — Thorpe's was Wa-tho-Huk, "path lit by lightning" — throughout the entire book. It is hard to blame an author for what may have been a publisher's stylistic decision, but it grates all the same. And Maraniss compromises his message about Thorpe's endless exploitation by himself exploiting Thorpe, who in this too-long book often seems like a vehicle for the author to display his antiracist bona fides.
On occasion, the demand for racism exceeds the supply, and Maraniss overreaches. He quotes part of a Philadelphia Inquirer column: “The Indians are a strong drawing card wherever they go. They are not held down by any eligibility code or amateur rules. They are just Indians, and the best team possible is gotten together respective from where the material comes. Thus to be beaten by the red men is not counted as a blemish upon a college team’s escutcheon.” The column's author was rehearsing the gripe, common in that time, that the Carlisle School's football team on which Thorpe played, despite competing against other college teams, did not consider itself bound by typical eligibility rules, resulting in the use of some players in their mid-20s who often played for more than four years. There surely were examples of degradation printed in widely circulated media back then, but this column was not one of them.
In a speech, Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle School, said, “United States, united people. How can we be made and keep our people united if we educate and train them to differences?” A century later, with Brown v. Board of Education and its rejection of the loathsome doctrine of “separate but equal” all but forgotten, we have returned to educating and training American citizens to identify themselves primarily by their differences at the expense of an American identity.
What would Jim Thorpe, who represented the United States of America in Stockholm before he became a citizen, have to say about the extraordinary story of his life being used to divide rather than to unite?
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August 1, 2022See David Maraniss at Parnassus in Nashville, in conversation with his son Andrew, on Aug. 25
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