Path Lit By Lightning
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Remove from Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Path Lit By Lightning
Narrated by:
David Maraniss
Buy Now for $37.53
-
Narrated by:
-
David Maraniss
-
By:
-
David Maraniss
About this listen
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 His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball, and his supposed allies turned away from him when their own reputations were at risk.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).
Critic Reviews
"...[Maraniss'] familiarity with the text is a plus for dedicated listeners interested in digging deep into Thorpe's
accomplishments, failures, and triumphs." (Sue-Ellen Beauregard)
accomplishments, failures, and triumphs." (Sue-Ellen Beauregard)
"Thorpe, who described himself as five-eighths Indian, won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics in Sweden. The finest football player of his time, he played both professional football and baseball. His roller-coaster life was marked by scandal when his medals were taken away because he had been paid to play semipro baseball. The injustice haunted him. He was surely flawed — thrice married, an absent father, prone to drink — but always a staunch partisan of Native American issues."
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.