Well-known author James Alexander Thom will be a special guest at both the historical society museum and the library Tuesday. Photo submitted

By DARREL RADFORD
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For those who have read his novels, it seems as if James Alexander Thom was there when George Rogers Clark captured Vincennes. You get the feeling that he was also right in the middle of the French and Indian War. Or that he not only knew Lewis and Clark, but tagged along on their epic expedition.

But truth be told, one of Indiana’s best-selling authors of all time is only 80 years old.

Thom will be in New Castle next week as part of special events at the New Castle-Henry County Public Library and the Henry County Historical Society. There’s still time to make reservations for a 1 p.m. luncheon featuring Thom and his Shawnee Indian wife, Dark Rain, at the museum. Tickets are $15 and available at the library or the museum. Call 529-4028 for more information.

Then Tuesday evening, Thom will engage readers in a 6:30 p.m. “Meet the Author” event at the library, where he will discuss the story behind “Follow the River,” his novel that is now in its 37th printing and still sells 30,000 to 40,000 copies per year. The library has been encouraging patrons to read the book as part of its “Henry County Reads” program. Friends of the Library will provide refreshments at this free event.

Word Power

In an interview with The Courier-Times, Thom was insightful, funny and passionate about the power of words.

“The power of the language – to be able to make a living working and playing in language has just been better than anything I could have worked out for myself,” he said.

But Thom prefers them the old-fashioned way, reading a good book or sitting around the table with friends instead of getting information from tweets, Facebook and email.

“My favorite thing in living is conversation,” Thom said. “I’d rather talk and listen than have 200 TV channels. When we start batting ideas around and making each other wonder, I’m as happy as can be.”

Thom lives with his wife, a Shawnee Indian descendent named Dark Rain, in a 130-year-old cabin he reconstructed. He’s sold close to 2.5 million books, but still prefers the typewriter over a computer.

“If I can’t hear the keys, it doesn’t feel like I’m writing,” he said. “I use them, but I really don’t like computers. As a matter of fact, ours has been down and it’s been a relief.”

In a delightful bit of irony, Thom’s website announces that six of his books devoted to historical fiction are now being made available electronically. “I use every bit of my skill and imagination to take my readers hundreds of years into the past,” Thom said. “Now they’ll visit those old days through the screen of an electronic gizmo. It is ironic to me. It makes me shake my head and chuckle. But that shows you what the imagination can do.”

Past was perfect for him

At the historical society luncheon, Thom will discuss his latest book, “The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction.” Unlike actor Michael J. Fox in the hit movie triology “Back to the Future,” Thom’s journey into the past has been both meandering and methodical. No warp speed DeLorean was needed.

He was a newspaper reporter for The Indianapolis Star in 1961, but knew there had to be another path for him.

“That was not a natural job for me,” he said. “My heart wasn’t in that. I had been working on novels in my spare time. It wasn’t until after I left the paper that someone from the historical society suggested I write about George Rogers Clark.”

That was the beginning of Thom’s novel, “Long Knife,” written for the bicentennial of Clark’s victorious Vincennes battle.

“I basically got back into the past and just stayed there,” Thom said.

Thom’s latest book is full of insights on how humans and the society they live in has changed. For example, Thom has a chapter devoted to fire, and how important that has been to people down through the centuries.

“You can’t write a historical scene before the 19th century without having some sort of fire in it – a lamp or a hearth,” he said. “Sometimes I try to remind people that electricity is an awfully recent development in human experience. Compared to the amount of time people have had fire to help them along, electricity has only been around for a few seconds.”

One of his peers writes that Thom is probably American history’s best friend.

“He puts flesh and blood on forgotten names and breathes life into the stale past,” said author Jack Weatherford in a quote posted on Thom’s website. “He is probably, the most important author of American historic novels written today because he helps to interpret the distant past for the mind and interest of the modern reader.”

Other comments

Here are some other excerpts from The Courier-Times’ interview with Thom:

– On people’s reading habits today: “It used to be people read books because they had time to fill. Now people are reading less because they are trying to get information quickly. You have your tweets and Twitters. It’s us older folks who still love to be absorbed for a longer period of time. People used to have so much leisure, a novelist might spend two pages just setting up the parlor where something was going to happen. People not only had time to read, but they wanted to be absorbed that long. I never get impatient if I am reading good prose. I hate to see it end.”

– On the Information Age we live in: “Wisdom is a word that’s forgotten. Now it’s all data or information.”

– On our Indian heritage: “Few people may realize it, but Indianapolis was almost named Tecumseh,” Thom said.

– On his own family history: “I’m old enough to remember going to funerals of ancestors who were in the Civil War. Robert C. Thom, my great-grandfather, was in Andersonville. My dad, Jay W. Thom, was a veteran of both World War I and World War II. He trained horses in World War I and was an army medical officer in World War II. We actually have two different death certificates for him, one issued in 1918 when the Spanish flu outbreak was at its peak. They mass produced death certificates because the chances of getting that disease was so great. He was born in 1894 and here it is 2012 and I’m still alive. That’s a long span for two generations.”