BEAUTIFUL FIRST EDITION BOOK, HISTORY OF THE OF OLYMPICS, SIGNED BY THE FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN TO WIN AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL, JIM THORPE
A rare First Edition of History of the Olympics. Signed and Inscribed in clear and dark script by Jim Thorpe, on a page facing his portrait following foreword: “To Irene M. Daniels / From / Jim Thorpe / July, 23-1932.” 8vo, publisher’s cloth. FIRST EDITION. Los Angeles, 1932.
The first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S., Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm 1912 Olympic Games. He later played pro baseball and football. Thorpe died from heart failure on 28 March 1953. He was 64. Associated Press named him the USA’s greatest athlete and American football player of the first half of the 20th century, while an ABC Sports poll in 2000 ranked him as the best American athlete of the century.