Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe [Signed by Author]

Buford, Kate [Signed]

ISBN 10: 0803240899 / ISBN 13: 9780803240896

Published by Bison Books, 2012

About this Item

Softcover. Bound in glossy pictorial wraps with lettering on the covers and spine. Wraps are neat and tidy. Binding is tight and secure. Pages are crisp, clean, and bright. Images are printed in B&W. 479 pages. SIGNED BY BUFORD on the title page. Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press. No publication date on the title page. Copyright is dated 2010. Stated first Nebraska paperback printing: 2012. Please email with questions or to request photos. Note: if there is a photo beside this listing, it?s a STOCK photo that ABE put there (for reasons that we cannot understand or control) and might not match this actual book.

Seller Inventory # 26-365

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe [Signed by Author]
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803240899
• ISBN 13: 9780803240896
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

The first comprehensive biography of the legendary figure who defined excellence in American sports: Jim Thorpe, arguably the greatest all-around athlete in U.S. history.


With clarity and an eye for detail, Kate Buford traces the pivotal moments of Thorpe’s incomparable career: growing up in the tumultuous Indian Territory of Oklahoma; leading the Carlisle Indian Industrial School football team to victories against the country’s finest college teams; winning gold medals in the 1912 Olympics pentathlon and decathlon; defining the burgeoning sport of professional football; and playing long, often successful—and previously unexamined—years in professional baseball.


At the same time, however, Buford recounts the difficulties Thorpe faced as a Native American. We also see the infamous loss of his Olympic medals, stripped from him because he had previously played professional baseball, an event that would haunt Thorpe for the rest of his life. We see his struggles with alcoholism and personal misfortune, and how he came to distrust many of the hands extended to him. We learn the details of his vigorous advocacy for Native American rights while he chased a Hollywood career, and the truth behind the supposed reinstatement of his Olympic record in 1982.


Here is the story of a complex, iconoclastic, profoundly talented man whose life encompassed both tragic limitations and truly extraordinary achievements.

About the Author

Kate Buford is the author of Burt Lancaster: An American Life. She has written for the New York Times and has been a commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition and American Public Media’s Marketplace.