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Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
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84/99
Critics
62/99
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Rating
92/99
Volume
49/99
Rating
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About This Book
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 His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball.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.
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Reviews
"But Maraniss refuses to paint him as either a failure or a martyr ..."
"Maraniss elegantly records Thorpe's still-unbelievable domination of the 1912 Olympics, and contextualizes it by reminding us that it took place between his 1911 and 1912 college football seasons, which today could have won Thorpe back-to-back Heisman Trophies...But he also emphasizes that in the same calendar year that Thorpe's gridiron success was laying the ground for professional football in this country and his pentathlon gold medal was earned with a score three times better than the runner-up's, he was not permitted to become a citizen of the United States ..."
"As David Maraniss artfully demonstrates in the biography Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe, Thorpe was both puffed and pilloried ..."
"In telling the story of an athlete who frankly deserved better, the author demonstrates both Thorpe's persistence and courage, and the discriminatory policies that tried to keep him down."
"He corrects the record of some of the biggest myths in Thorpe's career — he didn't hit three home runs into three states in one game — but Marannis doesn't take out his hammer and smash Thorpe's legacy."
"Of course, racism was a powerful element in Thorpe's life, and Maraniss explores this topic with insight and nuance, just as he did in his biography of Roberto Clemente ..."
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