Red Rose Crew A True Story Of Women, Winning, And The Water

In 1975, a group of amazing women rowed their way to international success and glory, battling sexual prejudice, bureaucracy, and male domination in one of the most gruelling and competitive sports around. Among the members of the first international women's crew team-and one of the first women's teams anywhere-were Gail Pearson, the soft-spoken MIT professor who fought equally hard off the water to win the political battles necessary for her team to succeed; lead rower Carie Graves, a statuesque bohemian from rural Wisconsin who dropped out of college and later became the most intense rower of the crew; and Lynn Silliman, a tiny sixteen-year-old coxswain from California.

Daniel J. Boyne is the director of recreational rowing at Harvard University and former varsity women’s coach at Tufts University. He has published numerous articles in periodicals such as Harvard Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and Wooden Boat. He is the author of Essential Sculling and a former columnist for American Rowing Magazine. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.