Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe Tapa dura - 2010

“Diligently researched . . . Buford lays firm, clear historical groundwork for the reservation life and Indian world in which Thorpe grew up . . . Thorpe, in Buford’s account a likable and engaging if feckless man, seems tragically destined to wander forever, the fastest itinerant in the world.”
            -Jay Jennings, The New York Times Book Review
 
“A professional biographer has proved what sound research and skillful writing can do: reveal a singular man, animate the times of his life, and illuminate the complexities of our world today, which Jim Thorpe helped to shape.”
            -American Heritage
 
“Compelling . . . Exhilarating . . . Buford is persuasive when she insists that, both for better and for worse, Jim Thorpe’s true story is indeed stranger than most fictional tales of rising and falling heroes.”
            -Michael R. Stevens, Christianity Today Books and Culture
 
“This is the definitive biography of a legendary figure in American history, in and out of sports . . . An essential purchase.”
            -Library Journal
 
“Buford . . . knows about mythic heroes and draws a complex portrait of Jim Thorpe: from his superhuman athletic talents to his all-too-human flaws.”           
           -Steven V. Roberts, The Washington Post
 
“This book is written with razor-sharp clarity, rock-solid scholarship, and a prose that is as elegantly executed as it is at times heartbreaking. Native American Son, meticulously researched, is a book that finally sets the record straight to provide justice at last to a legitimate American hero.”
            -Larry Cox, Tucson Citizen
 
“An absorbing American story.”
            -Steve Kaufman, Louisville Courier-Journal
 
 “Impeccably researched . . . This retrospective is not the first to tackle the complex life of Jim Thorpe, but it’s the most comprehensive . . . Captures Thorpe’s breathtaking highs and heartrending lows.”
            -Kirkus
 
“From the opening paragraphs I realized that Native American Son was going to be gripping and illuminating. Kate Buford not only tells us a great deal we never knew about a legitimate American icon, she tells us a great deal about an America of which we may not have been fully aware, and does so in splendid prose.”
           -Ira Berkow
 
“As an athlete, Jim Thorpe was a force of nature. His achievements, across the board, remain unsurpassed. For many years we have needed a fair and comprehensive story of his life. Now we have it. Kate Buford's biography of Thorpe is a first-rate example of the genre. She has written—with clarity, insight, objectivity, and inspiration—a definitive work. Here is an evocation of triumph and tragedy, ans a uniquely American story.”
            -N. Scott Momaday

Kate Buford has written for" The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Film Comment, " and "Bluegrass Unlimited, " among other publications. She has been a commentator on NPR's "Morning Edition" and American Public Media's "Marketplace, "and on Virginia's NPR affiliate, WMRA. Her biography of Burt Lancaster was named one of the best books of 2000 by "The New York Times, "the" Los Angeles Times, "and "The Washington Post." She lives in Lexington, Virginia, and Westchester County, New York.