Guest column: Jim Thom was a writer, an artist, a historian, a pacifist, and a dear friend

Editor's note: This column has been updated to correct a reference to Chosin Reservoir.

Is there a man alive who wouldn’t rather look like James Alexander Thom? I first saw him striding up an aisle at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Sept. 19, 2017. One glance at him and you thought: Frontiersman. Tall, military bearing, bearded like a Civil War general. We were there for a reading by the great short story writer and novelist George Saunders, author of "Lincoln in the Bardo." (In my last hospital visit with Jim, he declaimed “I read Bardo four times.”) The three of us subsequently became pen pals.

But I knew about Jim long before that BCT night. In a way, Bob Hammel brought us together, at least literarily, a couple decades before. He initiated a Sunday series in the H-T called “Voices from the Corridor.” Jim and I and Jim’s friend Dick Cady, the Indianapolis journalist, were the primary contributors. It was fun while it lasted.

Even a decade before that, back in the late '80s when Jim was laboring over his monumental Tecumseh novel, "Panther in the Sky," I knew I had a prose blood brother somewhere out in Owen County. I had just arrived in Bloomington, but whenever I spotted a Jim Thom column or letter to the editor I felt right at home. The man was witty and sardonic and fearless and by god, he told the truth.

Naturally many people hated him for this, especially out in his birthplace, Sweet Owen as he called it. He told me about a close relative who burst into Jim’s self-built cabin in the woods. The man was furious because every time he had to say his name some wiseass local would take a shot at Jim. I mentioned this to George Saunders, and George said, “Tell him I’ll be his relative.”

From 2022:Author James Alexander Thom's Infinity sculpture now on display at Indiana State Museum

I am proud to say that I, too, became Jim’s relative during the last five years of his remarkable life. The Bible had it right when the scribe wrote that a Prophet is without Honor in his own Country. But if there’s any justice left in this bedraggled world, someday the Owen County historians will raise enough money to erect a sign that says “Birthplace of the Novelist James Alexander Thom.”

This is a man who wrote books bought by over 2 million people. His masterpiece "Follow the River, the incredible true story of Mary Ingles," is now in its 50th printing: 1,300,000 copies sold and still counting. Mary escaped her Shawnee kidnappers in 1755 and walked her way a thousand miles back home through uncharted wilderness. Ted Turner made a movie from Jim’s book. What Turner would never do, and Jim did, was retrace her footsteps himself.

You read that right. Jim himself “followed the river.” Why? “Because I knew I had to get this right.” Every page of that novel is a testament to how majestically he “got it right.” You are there, friends, every turn of that river. When you finish, you will sit there stunned by the human will to survive.

But eventually we don’t. Jim damn near made it to 90. He leaves behind his beautiful wife Dark Rain, a proud Shawnee and co-author of "Warrior Woman." And so many friends, one of whom is also mine and whom I must mention, the man known as Strats. When Dark Rain fell and broke her ankle on Christmas Day, I fired a shot across their near-neighbor Strats’ bow: Look in on them. The next day Jim fell on the ice, seriously injuring himself. Strats was there and Jim said he saved his life.

Sadly, only for another month. When I saw Jim in the hospital, he motioned me close and whispered, “I don’t think I’m coming out of this one.” They had just told him he had prostate cancer and it had metastasized.

I asked him, “Jim, how do you want to be remembered?” This is what he said: “I know you have this image of me as a Hemingwayesque frontiersman and all that, but I’m not. I’ve never killed an animal in my life.” Dark Rain interjected: “A couple chickens, helping out your dad.”

Here's what Jim was. A former Marine who fought at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, and who became a writer to rid himself of those memories. An artist, not just a writer, but a skilled woodcarver whose work resides in museums. A historian most at home among reenactors of battles fought more than two centuries ago. A pacifist in the model of his friend the Reverend Bill Breeden. A Truth-Talker. A quiet and humble gentleman unaware of his charisma and stature. And finally, my dear friend who I will never forget.

Dennis J. Reardon was a close friend of James Alexander Thom for six years and a fan for much longer. He retired from IU as a Professor Emeritus after heading up the MFA Playwriting program for over two decades.  His plays have been produced on Broadway and off.  He's a past recipient of a two-year National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.  He can be seen in the recent PBS American Masters episode "Joe Papp in Five Acts."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Columnist recalls special friendship with author James Alexander Thom