Well, I wrote a book which is called Jim Thorpe, Original All-American. It’s written – framed as an autobiography because I take on Jim’s voice, which I drew from recordings, from things he did write, and from things that were described that I thought could be things he would say or talk about himself. And I worked with Jim’s children, Grace Thorpe for example.
When the book was done – and I’d show people along the way and talked with various members of the family – I sent her a copy of it. And I got a phone call from Grace. It kind of worried me because I thought oh dear, she’s called me. I wonder what I did wrong. And she said, “Hello, Joe. This is Grace.” It’s kind of the way she talked. I said, “Hello, Grace. How are you?” “I’m great. You know that book?” “Uh, yeah.” “My father’s book.” That made me start to feel better. Oh good, my father. “Yeah. Yeah.”
She said, “Can you send me another copy? I want to put it in the local library.” I said, “Grace, how many copies do you want?” And that was to me because she thought of it as her father’s book made me feel that I had done the right thing. I want people to not see the book as my voice telling a story. I want them to hear the story. I want to be invisible. I’m not there, but the story is there.
