James alexander thom biography
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He wrote:
“Every element of the picture was perfect: the grandfather in his plain work clothes, his white hair backlighted by sunshine, the child’s form wrapped in the sheet, the atmosphere of the simple home suggested by black iron trivets and World’s Fair souvenir plates on the walls flanking the window. His words not only reflect his life in southern Indiana, but also demonstrate how people are connected with their surroundings.
But Mark Twain stands above all others.
“I realized if I stayed in journalism, I wouldn’t be able to be a good novelist; the pace is so different. Dark Rain is always at his side in this work. He traveled the Ohio, Kanawha and New Rivers and lived off the land to accurately recreate her story. CoffeeaskedSweet to manage the publicitytours and mediacampaigns for Thom's firstthree books, his best selling tomes.
He has been married five times, currently to ClaudiaCahillKirkpatrick who writesunder the name of Dark Rain Thom.
- Born
- May 28, 1933
Gosport - Nationality
- Profession
- Education
- Lived in
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Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Jim Hetherington
2014
When James Alexander Thom wrote about the lives of Native Americans, pioneers and explorers, the only way he believed he could bring authenticity to his historical fiction was to experience what his characters had.
He walked in the path of Lewis and Clark to the West and back.
James Alexander Thom was born in Gosport, Indiana, on May 28, 1933, to a pair of physicians, Jay Web and Julia Thom, and it was there in Owen County that Thom grew up. He focuses mainly on areas near the Ohio River Valley in southeastern Indiana, since Clark used the river for navigation. Therefore, one can find him hiking old Indian trails and canoeing Mid-western rivers recreating the experience of travel.
He fasted for a week to learn not only how it felt but how it affected his body. Yes, it was that same evening I had described from my imagination. They married a year later.
Upriver and downriver, great steel bridges spanned the Ohio River. The ice held the tops of bushes and reached in among the tree trunks of flooded forests.
The GaleGroup,2001. Long Knife. During his research for Follow the River he traced Mary Ingles' 1000 mile escape from the Shawnee Indians.
He reconstructed a log cabin using tools only from the period he wrote about. http://www.galenet.com/
Image:
"James Thom." From Sea to Shining Sea. New York: Ballantine, 1984.
Links: Interview with James Alexander and Dark Rain Thom
Who is James Alexander Thom?
James Alexander Thom is an American author, best known for his works in the Westerngenre and colonialAmericanhistorywhich are noted for theirhistoricalaccuracyborne of his painstaking research.
Yet I couldn’t make my hand fire and intrude on the poor man’s island of grief.
“At length, I crept away, shaken with doubt about my suitability for the journalistic profession.”
Others say it is that sensitivity that drives Thom’s best work.