Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport

by Joli Sandoz (Editor), Joby Winans (Editor)

Overview

The first anthology of women's personal essays on sports, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton on bicycling to Anna Seaton Huntington on rowing

With edge, passion, and depth, Whatever It Takes demonstrates the enormous importance of sports for girls and women. These essays deal with everything from finding a mentor - whether it's an Olympic gold winner or a neighborhood coach-to reveling in female team spirit. There are historical selections, as well as discussions of such developments as Title IX. The contributors, including world-class athletes and celebrated writers from Mariah Burton Nelson and Grace Butcher to Diane Ackerman and Maxine Kumin, tackle traditional favorites such as basketball and softball as well as more exotic sports from boxing and motorcycle racing to rock climbing.

Both timely and riveting, Whatever It Takes will appeal to the rapidly growing ranks of female athletes and to their enthusiastic followers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374525972
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	08/19/1999
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Joli Sandoz edited A Whole Other Ball Game (FSG, 1997) and teaches at Evergreen State College. She has played, coached, and written about sports since her first plunge off the starting blocks in 1961.

Joby Winans was a varsity collegiate athlete who now competes in road races and masters track and field. She works as a training and organizational development professional in Tacoma, Washington.

What People are Saying About This

Conniff

Whatever It Takes: Women On Women's Sport is a collection of 56 essays and poems by championship athletes, weekend warriors, and Pulitzer Prize–winning writers. The pieces range from the story of a young girl wowing boys and earning their respect on the baseball field in the late 1950s to a woman who plays squash for the first time at age 56 and quickly reaches the women's national championships.
—Kimberly Conniff, Brill's Content

Editorial Reviews

The Magic Barrel is a work radiant with personal vision. Compassionate and profound in its wry humor, it captures the poetry of human relationships on the point where reality and imagination meet.” —National Book Award Jury, 1959

From the Publisher

A companion to A Whole Other Ball Game, in which Sandoz collected women's short fiction on women's sports, this book collects women's essays (and some poetry) on the same subject. The authors of the 56 pieces include Diane Ackerman, Annie Dillard, Grace Butcher, Mariah Burton Nelson, Maxine Kumin, and Jewelle Gomez. Although the book covers the expected wide range of athletics, the writing is so superb that it does not feel as if the pieces were selected just to be representative. Standout essays include Teresa Leo's self-deprecating "Seconds," about her high-school decision to leave her dead-end Pennsylvania mining town, and Megan McNamer's "Longing and Bliss," about the importance of basketball in her life despite its being a boys-only sport in her youth. The few short historical pieces included seem pale by comparison. More suited to public libraries, this book could also be added to women's studies collections in academic libraries. Highly recommended.--Kathryn Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, BC Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

An eloquent collection of personal essays by women who, as the ad says, "just do it" and participate in competitive sports. The introduction addresses the scarcity of national media attention to sportswomen (despite the current fact that 39.5 percent of all high school athletes and 37 percent of all college athletes are women), and how, when there are stories, they tend to diminish the female athletes and their accomplishments. This anthology, compiled by active sportswomen Sandoz (who edited A Whole Other Ball Game: Women's Literature on Women's Sport, 1997) and Winans, focuses on women's personal joys and tribulations when participating in individual or team sport. The writings include essays from Pulitzer-winning authors, poets, and journalists (such as Annie Dillard, Maxine Kumin, Madeleine Blais) to world-class athletes, coaches, and fans; from adolescent tomboys to late bloomers; from a participant at a national meet to an Everywoman working out in the neighborhood gym. Sociological insight is also provided in pieces dealing with being disabled, becoming sexually enlightened (both lesbian and heterosexual), growing older, and being influenced by parents, mentors, rivals, and teammates. The majority of the 56 essays were written in the 1990s, with a smattering from the late 1800s and early 20th century. It's these earlier pieces that best exemplify the historical significance of the role of sports in the lives and rights of all women: "A reform often advances most rapidly by indirection. An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory," writes social activist Frances E. Willard in an 1895 piece about bicycling. Other sports covered include basketball, swimming, field hockey,rowing, rock climbing, motorcycle racing, and boxing. Individually, the essays and poems are technically precise and revealing and passionate. Together, they form a much-needed resource that gives voice to female athletes, summarized by one sportswoman's call: "The barriers fall. Now we can play."

Kirkus Reviews