May 30, 2022
Biographer Maraniss (When Pride Still Mattered) trains his keen eye on the remarkable career of Jim Thorpe (1887–1953), “an archetype, the great athlete, and a stereotype, the romanticized noble Indian... a foundation story of American sports.” Through archival research, interviews, and oral histories, Maraniss assiduously unpacks the “making of the man and the creation of the myth” surrounding Thorpe, the Olympic champion decathlete in track and field, centering his heritage from the outset and offering a historical overview of the kinds of discourse that would plague the athlete from the Sac and Fox nation for the entirety of his career. Along the way, he reveals striking resonances between Thorpe’s legacy and that of Sauk leader Black Hawk, a fellow “American Indian mythologized into spectacle,” nearly 80 years earlier—lending a new light to the racism Thorpe found himself up against, particularly in regard to the stripping of his 1912 Olympic gold medals for violating the rules of amateurism by being paid to play in the minor leagues from 1909 to 1910. While much attention is given to the prejudices Thorpe faced—and, later, his struggles with alcoholism—Maraniss’s work offers an equally fascinating look at his subject’s outsize talent as a man who excelled in the realms of baseball, football, and athletics broadly, tacked onto a vivid backdrop of sports culture in the first half of the 20th century. This essential work restores a legendary figure to his rightful place in history.
June 10, 2024
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post editor and biographer Maraniss (Rome 1960) narrates his exhaustive biography of Jim Thorpe, the great athlete born in the Sac and Fox Nation in Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma) in the late 1880s--only a dozen years after the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn. His birth name, Wa-Tho-Huk, translates to "Bright Path" or "A Bright Path the Lightning Makes." As a teenager, Thorpe (his Catholic baptismal name) was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, PA, where forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples in the U.S. was a stated goal. There he was by some accounts a reluctant scholar but excelled in all sports, playing football for Carlisle and taking on (and beating) the likes of Harvard's and West Point's teams. He later played pro football, major-league baseball, and basketball. In 1912, Thorpe won two Olympic gold medals for his pentathlon and decathlon performance in Stockholm--his crowning achievement until the medals were rescinded after it was discovered that he had previously played minor league baseball. While his post-athletic career was fraught with difficulties, his notoriety and popularity never waned. VERDICT As a narrator, Maraniss's delivery is serviceable but somewhat dry and uninflected. Listeners will likely be absorbed by Thorpe's remarkable and recommended story, but some might wish for a more engaging guide.--Joanna M. Burkhardt
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