Publisher's Weekly Review
Van Natta (First off the Tee) writes in this engaging biography that Babe Didrikson pointed to a javelin the first time she visited a track and field practice and asked, "What's that?" Only a few months later, the young basketball star from a blue-collar family of Norwegian immigrants in Beaumont, Tex., set a world record for the javelin throw. Two years later in the 1932 Olympics, she won a gold medal in the javelin and the hurdles and a silver in the high jump. A bet between sportswriters in the press box about her ability to golf recruited her to the game the very next day, launching her on a path to becoming the dominant player of her era. She had an amazing capacity to play any sport astonishingly well with a feisty and audacious confidence. Also fascinating was her marriage to professional wrestler and promoter George Zaharias and her struggle with cancer. After major surgery, she won two LPGA tournaments, including the U.S. Open, before the disease took her life at the age of 45 in 1956. While there is little analysis of Didrikson Zaharias's cultural role as a woman in the sporting world, Van Natta marvelously narrates the forgotten life of the "greatest all-around athlete of all time," a story that every American sport fan should relish. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent Van Natta turns in a workmanlike biography of Zaharias, one of America's most incandescent athletes. In her day, she was perhaps the country's premier female basketball player. She broke four world records and won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Olympic Games. She helped found the LPGA, winning the 1954 U.S. Women's Open by 12 strokes (while recovering from cancer surgery), among other feats. Van Natta captures Zaharias' singular athletic gifts, her ferocious competitiveness (accompanied by trash-talking), her bittersweet marriage to pro wrestler George Zaharias, the challenges to her gender that she faced from the press, and her public battle with the colon cancer that killed her. While it lacks the thoughtful analysis of Susan Cayleff's Babe (1995) and its attendant focus on Zaharias' homosexuality, this biography will generally bring today's readers up to speed on a mainstay on lists of the top 10 athletes of the past century.--Moores, Ala. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
Van Natta describes Zaharias's early life; her activities as an athlete and occasional entertainer; her remarkable track-and-field achievements at the 1932 Olympics; her conflicts involving amateur versus professional athletic status; and, especially, her golf career, relationship with her wrestler/promoter husband George Zaharias, and her battle with cancer until her death at age 45 in 1956. Because she is recognized as the greatest US woman athlete of the 20th century and because of her personal style (Van Natta calls her the obnoxious Texan), she has been the subject of many books. Van Natta refers to eight biographies and to her autobiography (This Life I've Led, 1955); at least five other biographies of Didrikson were published between 1961 and 1999. He cites books, articles, and interviews in 41 pages of notes. However, he provides no references in the text, so readers will need to work backward from the notes to words beginning a phrase on a given text page to discover whether documentation is actually provided for any quote or piece of information. Van Natta relies fairly heavily on information from Babe's autobiography, even though he states repeatedly that Babe characteristically falsified information throughout her career. Interesting light reading, but not academic fare. Summing Up: Optional. General readers. R. McGehee University of Texas at Austin
Library Journal Review
Long before she took up golf, Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1911-56) had established her reputation in track and field, basketball, baseball, and bragging. Before the 1932 Olympics, she told a rival, "Ah'm gonna whup yo' tomorrow," and then did. A reporter's dream, she parlayed her talent into a career in vaudeville and athletic exhibitions, before becoming a professional golfer. Journalist Van Natta (national correspondent, New York Times; First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers and Cheaters from Taft to Bush) has written the first biography of Zaharias for adults since Susan Cayleff's Babe (1995). While there are no new startling revelations, this biography takes readers more intimately into Zaharias's daily life, from her tomboy upbringing in Beaumont, TX, to her early death. Stricken with cancer, she approached her condition with unprecedented candor, spreading good cheer and even winning a golf tournament just months after surgery. VERDICT Bright and engaging, this biography brings Zaharias, her amazing accomplishments, and brash statements to life as no other book has. Fans and students of women's history and sports history will savor it. (Photographs not seen.)-Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, B.C. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Amador County Library.
Link+