Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water

"If you're not strong enough to swim fast, you're probably not strong enough to swim 'pretty,'" said a young Esther Williams to theater impresario Billy Rose. Since the nineteenth century, tensions between beauty and strength, aesthetics and athleticism have both impeded and propelled the careers of female swimmers-none more so than synchronized swimmers, for whom Williams is often considered godmother.



In this riveting history-the first of its kind-Vicki Valosik traces a century of aquatic ...