This was a very in depth look at the life and background of Jim Thorpe, athlete extraordinaire. The book did a good job at setting the background and situations that Thorpe faced to become the famed athlete he did.

I’ve always liked to look at maps and, back when I still lived in Britain, I had a map of Pennsylvania. My roommate and I would pore over it, finding the places named after familiar cities in England as well as place names taken from different cultures. But the one place name we didn’t understand was Jim Thorpe. Why the heck was there a town with a person’s full name, and who was he anyway? I now know the answers to those questions but, even after reading Path Lit by Lightning by David Maraniss, I’m still not sure it makes sense.

Jim Thorpe was a victim of both those who thought they knew what was best for him and those who cared only about what he could do for them. Using a variety of sources, including newspaper articles, Thorpe’s first wife’s journal and even Thorpe’s own words, David Maraniss has constructed a sympathetic look at Thorpe’s life from birth until he was laid to rest in one of the few places in the USA he never visited.

Twenty first century readers are likely to be disgusted by the racism prevalent throughout the book, but much of it would not have been considered out of the ordinary during Thorpe’s lifetime. The founder of the Carlisle school, General Pratt, believed that one should “Kill the Indian, save the man,” although he was considered too beneficent toward his charges and eventually removed from the school. Newspapers consistently used stereotypical terminology to describe his actions and those of his fellow Carlisle football players during games.

Far more infuriating to me was the lack of power he – and others – had in their chosen sports fields. Thorpe would struggle to arrive on time at a new team in a new community and, by the time his family was able to join him, he’d learn he was being traded to a different team. Furthermore, there were times when neither he nor others would receive the payment due for their playing. Combine the constant forced moves around the country, the amount of time he spent away from his family, as well as his drinking patterns, and it’s no surprise his wives opted for divorces. But it was the behaviors of those he believed he could trust, including notable coach Pop Warner, that came across as most shocking. An innovator Warner might’ve been, but Path Lit by Lightning implied his character was sorely lacking. At the end, even his third wife – who previously could’ve been considered his advocate – ignored his personal wishes for a funeral.

After finishing the book, I saw Jim Thorpe as a gentle giant, a naïve victim of racism by those who used his athletic abilities for their own gain. And I wondered if he might’ve been better off had he been able to stay home in Oklahoma and not so well known.

Disclaimer: Although I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, the opinions above are my own.

Fantastic book- the best I've encountered on Jim Thorpe. Maraniss is a meticulous researcher who shows his sources, and he uses them to weave a tale of not just one of the greatest athletes of all time, but to show how he affected the greater society around him. Thorpe was not treated well, and this makes the book difficult to read- but I urge people to accept that sometimes you gain great things by being a little uncomfortable.

I learned not only a great deal about Jim Thorpe, but about the treatment of indigenous people in general at the time- and the disturbing realization that not much has changed.

David Maraniss is the author of several biographies, including his latest, Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe (Simon & Schuster). This book will make a great addition to your sports biographies. But like great stories involving sport, it’s about so much more.

David has written biographies on Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente and now the great Jim Thorpe.

In this conversation we talk about David’s “four legs of the table” for writing biography, navigating around people who won’t talk, world building in biography, and a whole lot more.

The latest biography from journalist David Maraniss, perhaps most known to Wisconsinites for his book on Vince Lombardi “When Pride Still Mattered”, tells the complex life of consummate athlete Jim Thorpe. Perhaps one of the most recognized and mythologized athletes, Thorpe held Olympic gold medals for the decathlon and pentathlon, was an All-American football player, and played major league baseball. Thorpe’s life was long told as a story of tremendous talent and skill, but one that was also plagued with scandal and struggle. Maraniss thoroughly explores Thorpe’s life from his early days, examining what it was like for the Native American athlete to encounter sports in a world dominated by whiteness, where the racist ideology “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” still reigned supreme. Despite the men and institutions who would turn their backs on him, and his own demons, Thorpe was a man who would not give in. The story of his life persists as one of the greats.

Published in the August 2022 edition of Appleton Monthly Magazine.

✨Book Review✨

Hey book friends! I’m currently in the time between Christmas and New Year’s where I’m not sure what day it is. All I know is the kids are home from school and the house is a mess with all the new stuff paraphernalia. 😵‍💫

I finished Path Lit By Lightning before Christmas, but am just now getting around to writing the review. Thank you to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for the eARC. As you can see, this is one I had to have a physical copy of as well.

Jim Thorpe is, arguably, the greatest all around American athlete of all time. And he was a Native American Indian. Considering his Oklahoma roots, that’s why I definitely wanted a physical copy.

Fun fact: In my pre-SAHM days I worked for the Oklahoma state government in the Jim Thorpe Building across the street from the Oklahoma Capitol. Second oldest building in the capitol complex, only younger than the capitol itself.

Other than being an Olympian, a great athlete and an Indian…I didn’t know much about Jim Thorpe. This book is an excellent, in-depth biography that doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Thorpe wasn’t treated well and manipulated in my instances throughout his life. He wasn’t perfect, but considering what he did for his fellow man and country, the man deserves a lot more credit and recognition.

Did you know he was one of the founding members of the NFL? 🏈 I had no idea and neither did my Kansas City Chiefs football loving husband.

If you’re looking for an excellent biography, then look no further. This isn’t your typical American hero foisted on you during your school age years. More people like Thorpe should be taught in schools. Much for their accomplishments and much more for how to NOT treat minorities.

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.

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.

Jim Thorpe was a legend. He was a member of Sac and Fox Nation and experienced the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” He excelled at every sport he tried. He won medals, is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, There was nothing he couldn't do. Until later in life when he stopped playing. Then he experienced nothing but failure in his life. This was an interesting read and I learned a lot.

I grew up in the town of Jim Thorpe where we learned the history of this great Athlete but in this biography it get behinds the myth of Thorpe and into the complicated man he was. The life of Jim Thorpe, athlete for the ages, comes to us in gripping detail from the author.

Thorough and well told. I appreciated getting the context leading up to and surrounding Thorpe's life.

This book takes a look at the life of all time athletic great, Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was a natural athlete in many sports, including football, baseball and track and field. Thorpe was unjustly stripped of his olympic medals from the 1912 Stockholm games. This book recounts his efforts and those of his allies to have those medals restored to him. The book was well researched and very informative on all aspects of Thorpe's life, both athletic and personal. It also gives a history of many sports during the time period when Thorpe lived. I highly recommend this book to other biography readers as well as those interested in sports.

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 tugging on the low-hanging fruit of exhibiting racial attitudes of a century ago in the cold daylight 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 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 United States citizen, have to say about the extraordinary story of his life being used to divide rather than to unite?

Path Lit by Lightning, David Maraniss’ latest book, is a biography of the legendary athlete Jim Thorpe. The book takes its name from a translation of Thorpe’s Indian name Wa-tho-Huk, which refers to the lightning storm gathering outside as Jim Thorpe and his twin brother Charlie were born.

The story of Thorpe’s Indian name is the first of many tales about his life that Maraniss takes us through. The author does his best to separate fact from myth, but it’s not always easy given the legendary nature of Thorpe’s life, and the fact that those around him, and Thorpe himself, had their own reasons to sometimes shade the truth.

Maraniss gives us all of Thorpe’s life. We learn about Thorpe’s early days born into the Sac and Fox tribe in Oklahoma. Then on to his time at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, and his performance on the football field and at the 1912 Olympics.

Maraniss spends quite a bit of time exploring Jim’s Olympic experience, and then showing how his medals were stripped from him. Though Thorpe himself was not blameless, other famous sports figures like Pop Warner and Avery Brundage come in for their share of blame for the circumstances surrounding Thorpe’s Olympic fall from amateur sports grace, and deservedly so.

We also see Thorpe meet his first wife Iva Miller at Carlisle and marry her after a long (and mostly long distance) relationship in 1913. We see him as a professional baseball player, and as president of the newly formed American Professional Football Association, forerunner to the NFL. And there is much more after that about his professional career, his later loves, his carousing, the movie made of his life, and the end of his days in 1953.

Also well documented in this book is the racism and abuse aimed at Native Americans. Much of Thorpe’s early experiences were of forced assimilation (“Kill the Indian, Save the Man” was the philosophy of the founder of the Carlisle School). He dealt with white people’s preconceptions of native people all through his life. It’s a testament to Thorpe’s amazing athletic abilities that he achieved so much under such circumstances.

I liked this book a lot. It’s mostly chronological, but it's not dry and avoids the trap of being a “this happened, then this happened” account of Thorpe’s life. However, Maraniss can and does take some deep dives - some sections of the book go into A LOT of detail. So I found myself getting bogged down in places.

That means that I found myself reading a few chapters at a time, both to soak in all that was being covered, and to avoid being dissuaded from continuing if the going got too “boggy”. In the end, because I love Maraniss’ writing style, I always looked forward to picking the book back up.

Maraniss is a gifted writer. I’ve read several of his previous books and reviewed one of them here on my blog - A Good American Family. What you expect from a book by Maraniss is a good story, thoroughly told, with thoughtfulness and a touch of humanity. This latest book does not disappoint.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The life of Jim Thorpe, athlete for the ages, comes to us in gripping detail by a man who knows how to tell a story. This is a biography that is impossible to put down.
It get behinds the myth of Thorpe and into the complicated man he was. A double gold medal winner at the 1912 Olympics — decathlon and pentathlon — All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, major league ball player and pro football player, Thorpe was unmatched in his day, and likely ours.
His life is a testament to the will to persevere against the odds. Read this book and be inspired. (Opinions mine; I received an eARC, courtesy NetGalley)

PATH LIT BY LIGHTNING
The Life of Jim Thorpe
Author: David Maraniss
Published August 9, 2022 by Simon & Schuster
Category: Biography - 672 pages
5 stars

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Net Galley for allowing me an advanced reader copy of this title.

My rating for this book is 5 stars. I would give it 10 stars if possible. It is beautifully written, thoroughly researched and does justice to its fascinating subject, the greatest American athlete in recorded time. Incredibly, he was also one of the most mistreated by the media and by the gaming and sports authorities. Jim was stripped of his 1912 Stockholm Olympic pentathlon and decathlon medals in 1913 by the International Olympic Committee because he broke the amateurism rule by having played minor league baseball for a number of weeks. These medals were restored to him only a few weeks ago, on July 15, 2022. The mind boggles that the IOC could be so quick to take the medals away and so slow in correcting their insult to this magnificent athlete.

Author Maraniss presents a detailed description of the historical context of Jim Thorpe's ancestors and the manner in which their lives had been disrupted for decades by government policies forcing them to relocate to areas where the environment was completely foreign to them and their way of sustaining their lifestyle. He weaves this historical backdrop throughout Jim's story. It is fascinating.

Jim (James) was born a twin on May 22, 1887, but his brother Charlie died of apparent typhoid fever when they were just 2 months short of their 10th birthday, March 1897. Their parents Charlotte and Hiram were both of mixed ancestry which included Sauk, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Menominee, French and English. Charlotte was fluent in English, French, Potawatomi and Sauk. At their baptism, the boys were given Indian names also. Jim's was Wa-tho-Huk which translates to "Path Lit by Lightning." No, their parents did not have a premonition of Jim's athletic achievements - there was lightning along the river a short distance from the log cabin where Charlotte gave birth! Charlotte did tell Jim from a very early age that he was a descendant of Chief Black Hawk, the leader of a resistance movement called the Black Hawk War (7 future US senators, 4 future Illinois governors, and 2 future US presidents, Taylor and Lincoln fought in that war - though most never fired a shot).

The author was incited to write about Jim not because of his massive athletic achievements but because of the incredible number of hardships and tragedies Jim endured in his life. Maraniss admired the man Jim Thorpe for his grace in the way he handled all the difficulties and tragedies in his life. He simply never gave up - never complained, never explained, just got on with it.

This is a long book, but an incredibly easy read due to Maraniss' writing skill. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in biography, history or fascinating human beings.

I’ve long been a fan of David Maraniss since he wrote When Pride Still Mattered: A Life Of Vince Lombardi some years ago. A Madison, Wisconsin native, Maraniss has a day job in Washington but writes biographies on the side. Path Lit by Lightning (Amazon) is his 12th book. Coincidentally, this biography of Jim Thorpe is coming out just weeks after Thorpe made the news once again, when his Olympic titles were returned to him officially and his records added to the books.

Thorpe was a Native American who was sent to the Carlisle Indian School, one of many institutions in this country that attempted to assimilate the indigenous population and get them to follow the white man’s rule. The school, which taught all ages, was well-known for it’s sports teams, competing against ivy league colleges every season.

Jim Thorpe was not a great student, and he hated school so much that he ran away several times. But when he found sports, his life changed. It turned out that not only did he like sports, he excelled at everything he tried. Under the teachings of Pop Warner (yes, that Pop Warner that all those younger kids’ football leagues are named after) That would lead Thorpe to the 1912 Olympics, where he competed in both the pentathlon and the decathlon. Can you imagine a modern-day athlete competing in BOTH competitions?

About six months after the Olympics, it was “discovered” that Thorpe played minor league baseball for pay prior to the Olympics. I say discovered because no one actually hid the fact that Thorpe played ball; he played under his own name and was in the newspapers all the time. At first Olympic officials said there was nothing to be done because any dispute must be made within 30 days of the games, and it was well past that. But there was pressure from several amateur organizations so Thorpe’s Olympic medals and trophies were taken away from him, despite the fact that other countries regularly paid their “amateur” athletes to train.

David Maraniss does a deep dive into Thorpe’s life, giving great detail to every period of Thorpe’s life. I mean, really deep dive. This is a hefty book with massive amounts of detail, and at times, it did bog down the book. Thorpe’s life is well-documented through the many newspaper stories throughout his playing career in major and minor league baseball, the birth of professional football, and the many odd jobs Thorpe held once his playing days were over. While I appreciate the detail, at times I found myself skimming sections because it was too much.

The author doesn’t have to do much to show the racist feelings against Jim Thorpe and his fellow Native American athletes. It’s really cringing to read some of the excerpts from the newspaper reports of the time. I can’t imagine what it was like to be on the receiving end of such bile. Throughout his life, Thorpe would also use his heritage by saying he didn’t know any better, he was just a poor, ignorant Indian, whenever things didn’t go his way. Maraniss portrays a sympathetic look to Thorpe and his plight, showing how white men repeatedly put him in his place, or screwed him over.

It was sad to read of Thorpe’s nomadic lifestyle after he left the Carlisle Indian School, and how little time he spent with his wives and children. I know the time he spent away from his family was because he was trying to earn money to support them, but he often gave away or drank away his earnings. Other times, he was simply cheated out of money by broken promises from whatever team owner convinced Thorpe to play in their league. After a while of reading about the same pattern over and over again, I found myself skimming those sections because it was heartbreaking.

As sad as Path Lit by Lightning is at times, it’s also a good look at how the world treated indigenous people a century ago, and how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. And in case you were wondering where the title of the book came from, Path Lit By Lightning is the rough translation of Thorpe’s Indian name. Pretty accurate if you ask me.

It's difficult to read this without drawing on the current context of multi-millionaire athletes. Thorpe's story is tragic from that perspective, and I admit it will be just as tragic if read in a vacuum - but this is more a celebration of what Thorpe was able to achieve against a far different backdrop, that of the systemic racism pitted against indigenous peoples trying to maintain a foothold (or merely survive) in "developed" countries.

Maraniss does a great job presenting the entire story; we're introduced (or re-introduced) to a number of names, many familiar, and how they shaped the Thorpe story overall. Lots of work went into this book, and it shows. A pleasure to read, in spite of the inevitable outcome.

An amazing athlete yet not as celebrated perhaps because of his own personal issues and racial bias against him, Jim Thorpe was good at any sport he tried. This is a thorough and well researched biography into the life of one of history's most notable athletes.

The book does not shy away from the trials of Thorpe's life. He struggled financially and had alcohol and relationship problems. He also was raised in a time of systematic racism against Native Americans, which Thorpe was. The author goes into great detail explaining how the treatment of Native Americans at the time had a profound impact on Thorpe.

This is a thoroughly detailed book that shines light onto an incredible athlete who deserves to be remembered for his achievements and noted for abilities.

Path Lit by Lightning is the story of Jim Thorpe written by renowned historian and biographer David Maraniss. Jim Thorpe has achieved an almost mythical status in American sports history. He won the pentathlon and decathlon gold medals at the 1912 Olympics, only to have the medals taken away when it was discovered he had played two seasons of minor league baseball. Despite this setback much of Jim Thorpe’s career was spent in professional sports. He helped to create the National Football League and was in the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also played major league baseball for the New York Giants and barnstormed basketball with an all-Indian team.

As the author points out much of what is known about Jim Thorpe is the myth, rather than the reality. This is an important book that demythologizes, as much as possible, the Jim Thorpe story. Born into the Sac and Fox Indian tribe, the author shows how much of Jim Thorpe’s life mirrors the larger story of Indian and American life in the 20th century. Born in 1887 at the time when the last of the tribes were being located west of the Mississippi River, Thorpe was named Wa-Tho-Huk which translates as “Bright Path” or the more poetic interpretation that Maraniss claims since Thorpe was born during a lightning storm, “Path Lit by Lightning.”
What this book really highlights well is the fact that Jim Thorpe’s life was divided between the Indian world and the white world. He was as true as he could be to his Indian ancestry while trying to make a living for himself and his family in a white man’s world. He also forged paths in professional sports, a career completely new to Indians or whites. Later in life, after his sports career faded away, Thorpe took up acting bit parts in movies and became an early advocate of Indian roles played by Indian actors.

It's hard to know if a white man writing an Indian story is appropriate or not. David Maraniss does try to frame the story from the Indian view as well as the white view. I think the narrative leans more white than Indian, but that might be due to a lack of material from the Indian point of view. Of course, that lack is most likely caused by white people’s inattention and causal racism throughout Jim Thorpe’s life. Also, Thorpe knew that his popularity depended in many ways on the white person’s approbation. Even his autobiography may be framed for a white audience, rather than written from an Indian point of view. It’s difficult to tease out one view from the other and the only thing we know for certain is that Jim Thorpe was never in control of the narrative.

This book is very well worth reading simply as a biography of one of the most popular athletes of all time. It is also worth reading as a history of American Indian life in the early 20th century. I think even if you think you know Jim Thorpe and early American Indian history, you will learn something from this book.

I’m very glad to have had the chance to read this book from #SimonandSchuster. I believe notice that this book was available to read came in a promotional email from #NetGalley. I don’t think I went looking for it, but I’m very glad I found it!