Path Lit by Lightning Path Lit by Lightning

Path Lit by Lightning

The Life of Jim Thorpe

    • 4.1 • 85 Ratings
    • $16.99

Publisher Description

A biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete that “goes beyond the myth and into the guts of Thorpe’s life, using extensive research, historical nuance, and bittersweet honesty” (Los Angeles Times), 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. Most famously, he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he 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 awesome talent, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. At Carlisle, he faced the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball, and his supposed allies turned away from him when their own reputations were at risk. 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 survived, determined to shape his own destiny, his perseverance becoming another mark of his mythic stature.

Path Lit by Lightning “[reveals] Thorpe as a man in full, whose life was characterized by both soaring triumph and grievous loss” (The Wall Street Journal).

GENRE
Biographies & Memoirs
RELEASED
2022
August 9
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
672
Pages
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster
SELLER
Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC
SIZE
66.9
MB

Customer Reviews

Bee britches ,

Past midnight lightning

I thought the book was excellent it drug on at times because of too much information that I don’t know her really were important to the scope of the book

Overall I learned a lot more about Jim Fortnite ever knew and I appreciate you writing the book

Dr. James Roy Appleton Junior MD

Left Out (objectivity) ,

Interesting at first, until the repetition/redundancy kicks in (over and over and over.)

This is an exhaustively research book with much interesting information and social commentary regarding the treatment of Native Americans, as well as the inherent inconsistencies in Jim Thorpe as a person. Unfortunately, the facts and commentary are interesting the first (or even second or third) time they are made, but are repeated every few pages and become redundant and tiresome. This is true not only for the commentary and description of Thorpe but also for all of the other people and events that are described in the book. Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. It is as if the author did not remember that he had just made the same points several pages back or assumed that the reader had simply forgotten them. The book would have been a much better read if a discerning editor had kept the authors pension for redundancy in check. It should have been half the length.

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