Books At The Rowing History Forum

During the lunch break and at the reception at Sunday’s Rowing History Forum the attendees could take the opportunity to buy some rowing books from the participants, who had written rowing books, and of course get them signed by the authors. Two of the titles have been around for some years, Beauty and the Boats (2005) by Tom Weil and Ernestine Bayer: Mother of U.S. Women’s Rowing (2006) by Lew Cuyler, but if you have not seen these titles before, here was the chance to get your copy with a personal inscription.

A brand new book on rowing is An Obsession with Rings – How Rowing Became an Olympic Sport for Women in the United States by Joanne Wright Iverson (with Margaret O. Kirk), published in 2009. Wright Iverson, newly elected president of Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia, began to row at the Philadelphia Girls’ Rowing Club (PGRC) in 1959. She immediately got hooked and one year later she won her first trophy. Together with Ted Nash and Ed Lickiss, the three of them founded the National Women’s Rowing Association (NWRA) in 1963, which led to the National NWRA Championship Regatta in 1966. A year later Wright Iverson was coaching women instead of rowing herself. In 1976, she would see her dream come true, women competing in rowing at the Olympic Games. (If you would like to order a copy of Joanne Wright Iverson’s intriguing book, please click here.)

I was also lucky to meet ‘Dr. Rowing’ (a.k.a. Andy Anderson) at the Forum. He was kind enough to bring me a copy of his eminent and enjoyable book The Compleat Dr. Rowing (2001), which is a collection of questions and answers from ‘Dr. Rowing’s’ famous column in Rowing News. Reading his book shows what we have known for a very long time: ‘Dr. Rowing’ is a funny fellow.