Awards

• Winner of Winner, Buck Dawson Authors Award—International Swimming Hall of Fame 2020 (United States)

Overview

How do you invent an Olympic sport? For Katharine Whitney Curtis, it took the right idea, great talent, some good timing, and the determination to make it happen. The originator of synchronized swimming as we know it today, she even wrote the first book on the subject in 1936. But there was much more to her life and career. After the start of World War II, Curtis became a recreational director in the American Red Cross and followed the troops wherever the course of war took them, serving under Generals Patton and Eisenhower, before becoming a director of travel for the U.S. Army in Europe during the Cold War. Unbound by fear or the narrow expectations of society, this was a woman who lived ahead of her time, making things happen along the way. As her first biography, this book generously features Curtis's own words, selected from more than 2,000 pages of letters, and contextualized by her surviving friends and family members.

Full Product Details

9781476664583

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Reviews

This is the biography of a fascinating woman....Although Curtis was one of the founders of synchronized swimming, [this] book is a comprehensive description of her life, of which the sport was only one part. This account of her travels, adventures, and experiences documents the whole intriguing life of a complicated 20th-century woman...recommended --Choice

Author Information

Jordan Whitney-Wei is the great-grandnephew of Katharine Whitney Curtis. His previous writing and research focused on philosophy and poetry. He lives in Columbus, Ohio.

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