America's Girl : The Incredible Story of How Swimmer Gertrude Ederle Changed the Nation

**__America's Girl__ is an intimate look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, but broke the record set by men.** The feat so thrilled America that it welcomed her home with a ticker tape parade that drew two million people. This fascinating portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics, to the first attempt the next year by Ederle to swim from France to England in frigid and turbulent waters, a feat that had been conquered by only five men up to that time. This is also a stirring look at the go-go era of the 1920s, when the country was about to recognize that women not only could vote, but compete on an international scale as athletes. At the height of Prohibition, Ederle's triumph over the formidable Channel was a triumph for women everywhere. __America's Girl__ immerses readers in a pivotal era of American history and brings to life the spirit of that time.

America’s Girl is an intimate look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, but broke the record set by men. The feat so thrilled America that it welcomed her home with a ticker tape parade that drew two million people. This fascinating portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics, to the first attempt the next year by Ederle to swim from France to England in frigid and turbulent waters, a feat that had been conquered by only five men up to that time.

This is also a stirring look at the go-go era of the 1920s, when the country was about to recognize that women not only could vote, but compete on an international scale as athletes. At the height of Prohibition, Ederle’s triumph over the formidable Channel was a triumph for women everywhere.

America’s Girl immerses readers in a pivitol era of American history and brings to life the spirit of that time.

Publishers Weekly

The year 1926 was a banner one for American sports: Jack Dempsey fought Gene Tunney in the biggest heavyweight fight ever, Bobby Jones won his first British Open title and second U.S. Open title, and Babe Ruth made a comeback for the Yankees by smashing home runs at a prodigious rate. On August 6 that year, Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle joined this company, thrilling the world by becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel. A fast swimmer, she bested the records already set by several men who had conquered the treacherous waters before her, and the U.S. festively embraced its new heroine with a ticker-tape parade on lower Broadway in New York City. America's enchantment with its young heroine soon faded, however, because the shy Ederle was uninterested in keeping up her public activities and appearances, and by the time she died in 2003 she had slipped into relative obscurity. Drawing on the massive archive of letters and newspaper articles that Ederle's niece, Mary, made available, AP sportswriter Dahlberg recreates the English Channel swim moment by moment. Dahlberg's pedantic prose and workmanlike account of Ederle's breathtaking feat, however, is as joyless as Ederle's swim was triumphant. Surprisingly, Ederle's almost forgotten feat is the subject of two other recent books, Glenn Stout's Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World (Houghton Mifflin, June 2009) and Gavin Mortimer's The Great Swim (Walker, 2008). (Aug.)

America's Girl is an intimate look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, but broke the record set by men.

The feat so thrilled America that it welcomed her home with a ticker tape parade that drew two million people. This fascinating portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics, to the first attempt the next year by Ederle to swim from France to England in frigid and turbulent waters, a feat that had been conquered by only five men up to that time.

This is also a stirring look at the go-go era of the 1920s, when the country was about to recognize that women not only could vote, but compete on an international scale as athletes. At the height of Prohibition, Ederle's triumph over the formidable Channel was a triumph for women everywhere.

America's Girl immerses readers in a pivotal era of American history and brings to life the spirit of that time.

Americas Girl is an intimate look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, but broke the record set by men. The feat so thrilled America that it welcomed her home with a ticker tape parade that drew two million people. This fascinating portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics, to the first attempt the next year by Ederle to swim from France to England in frigid and turbulent waters, a feat that had been conquered by only five men up to that time. This is also a stirring look at the go-go era of the 1920s, when the country was about to recognize that women not only could vote, but compete on an international scale as athletes. At the height of Prohibition, Ederles triumph over the formidable Channel was a triumph for women everywhere. Americas Girl immerses readers in a pivitol era of American history and brings to life the spirit of that time. "America's Girl is an intimate look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel but broke the record set by men. The feat so thrilled America that two million people welcomed her home with a ticker-tape parade. This fascinating portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold-medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics and on to her first attempt the next year to swim from France to England in frigid and turbulent waters - a feat that had been conquered by only five men up to that time." "This is also a stirring look at the go-go era of the 1920s, when the country was about to recognize that women not only could vote but could compete on an international scale as athletes. At the height of Prohibition, Ederle's triumph over the formidable Channel was a triumph for women everywhere."--Jacket Offers a look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, but broke the record set by men. This portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics.