About this item
This is the extraordinary story of a nearly forgotten American superstar athlete. Texas girl Babe Didrikson never tried a sport too tough and never met a hurdle too high. Despite attempts to keep women from competing, Babe achieved All-American status in basketball and won gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics.Then Babe attempted to conquer golf. One of the founders of the LPGA, Babe won more consecutive tournaments than any golfer in history. At the height of her fame, she was diagnosed with cancer. Babe would then take her most daring step of all: go public and try to win again with the hope of inspiring the world.A rollicking saga, stretching across the first half of the 20th century, WONDER GIRL is as fresh, heartfelt, and graceful as Babe herself.
About the Author
Don Van Natta Jr. is an award-winning senior writer for ESPN who contributes to the network's Emmy Award-winning show, "Outside the Lines." He is also the host of "Backstory," a new ESPN docuseries with episodes available to watch anytime on ESPN.com and ESPN . For four consecutive years, Van Natta's longform writing for ESPN was published in The Best American Sports Writing. In 2018, several pieces about the NFL by Van Natta, co-authored with his colleague Seth Wickersham, were National Magazine Award finalists; two of their pieces appeared in The Best American Magazine Writing 2018.He joined ESPN in January 2012 after spending 16 years as an investigative reporter at The New York Times, where he was twice a member of Pulitzer Prize-winning teams. At The Times, Van Natta was based in Washington, DC, London, New York and Miami. He began his career at The Miami Herald, where he worked for eight years. At The Herald, he was a member of a team of reporters awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of Hurricane Andrew. Van Natta wrote a first-person piece for the Herald about riding out Hurricane Andrew in a Florida City motel that was destroyed by the storm's 165 miles per hour winds.Van Natta is the author of three books, two of which were New York Times bestsellers: First Off the Tee (2003) about Presidential golf and Her Way (2007) , an investigative biography of Hillary Clinton co-authored with Jeff Gerth. Van Natta's most recent book, Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, won the United States Golf Association's Herbert Warren Wind Book Award in 2012. In 2016, the Society of Professional Journalists named Van Natta a "Fellow of the Society," its highest honor recognizing "the highest standards" and "extraordinary contributions to the profession of journalism." He is also the founder of The Sunday Long Read newsletter, a popular weekly curation of the best longform journalism, and the co-host of The Sunday Long Read Podcast.He is a graduate of Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ and Boston University. In 2000, Van Natta received a Distinguished Alumni Award from BU's College of Communication. In 2018, Van Natta was inducted into Don Bosco Prep's Hall of Fame. Van Natta lives in Miami with his wife, award-winning journalist Lizette Alvarez, their two daughters, Isabel and Sofia, and their black lab, Marley.
