posted 07-31-2012 11:06 AM               

Simon & Schuster to publish biography on Sally Ride — the late woman astronaut

Simon & Schuster will publish a biography on the late astronaut Sally Ride by award-winning journalist Lynn Sherr. Alice Mayhew, Vice President and Editorial Director, acquired the rights from Esther Newberg, ICM Partners. Publication is planned for 2013.

Lynn Sherr covered the space shuttle program for ABC News for more than five years, from the first flight in 1981 through the Challenger explosion and the investigation into what happened. Sherr got to know Sally Ride very well, both as a subject and later as a friend, and she has exclusive access to Ride's family for this book.

This is a story that will be told by the people who knew her best: her family, her friends, her crewmates and commanders at NASA, her colleagues on a series of investigative commissions, and the other pioneering women in her astronaut class. It will also be the first in-depth look at the unusually private woman beyond the spacesuit, as recalled by her partner of 27 years, Tam O'Shaughnessy.

Sherr says, "It's not only Sally's life story — the girl from California who was supposed to be a tennis pro but shot for the stars instead — but it's what made her special. She worked extremely hard to get it right at NASA, and she intuitively grasped the significance of her breakthrough as the first American woman in space as a catalyst for inspiring girls to learn about science and math, and how it would make the world a better place. And she had so much fun doing it."

"People may take Sally Ride's enormous achievement a little for granted after all these years, but it was huge at the time and in fact for all time. Her story is literally thrilling," adds Alice Mayhew. "She was a serious and modest person as well as a brave and daring one, and she has the biographer she deserves in Lynn Sherr. We are proud to be part of this."

In addition to being about Sally Ride's heroic and trailblazing life as an astronaut, this book is a capsule history of the Space Shuttle program — in all its glory and its disappointments. Ultimately, NASA would not be able to hold on to a free spirit like Sally, who blazed a trail for thousands of young women. For many, she remains their hero.

Award-winning broadcaster and author Lynn Sherr spent more than thirty years with ABC News, covering a wide range of stories — from women's issues and social change to investigative reports, politics and the space program at "20/20" and "World News." She continues to broadcast for various outlets, and to write for magazines and online.

She is also the author of Swim: Why We Love the Water, Outside the Box: My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss and Television News, Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words, and Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes, which was also the subject of a one-hour documentary for the PBS Nature program.

Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.

posted 11-11-2013 09:58 AM               

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space
by Lynn Sherr

The definitive biography of Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, with exclusive insights from Ride's family and partner, by the ABC reporter who covered NASA during its transformation from a test-pilot boys' club to a more inclusive elite.

Sally Ride made history as the first American woman in space. A member of the first astronaut class to include women, she broke through a quarter-century of white male fighter jocks when NASA chose her for the seventh shuttle mission, cracking the celestial ceiling and inspiring several generations of women.

After a second flight, Ride served on the panels investigating the Challenger explosion and the Columbia disintegration that killed all aboard. In both instances she faulted NASA's rush to meet mission deadlines and its organizational failures. She cofounded a company promoting scienceand education for children, especially girls.

Sherr also writes about Ride's scrupulously guarded personal life — she kept her sexual orientation private — with exclusive access to Ride's partner, her former husband, her family, and countless friends and colleagues. Sherr draws from Ride's diaries, files, and letters. This is a rich biography of a fascinating woman whose life intersected with revolutionary social and scientific changes in America. Sherr's revealing portrait is warm and admiring but unsparing. It makes this extraordinarily talented and bold woman, an inspiration to millions, come alive.

• Hardcover: 320 pages
  
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 3, 2014)
  
• ISBN-10: 1476725764
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1476725765

posted 05-20-2014 12:06 PM               

After Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 Sherr conducted exclusive interviews with Ride's family and friends as well as O'Shaughnessy to paint a fuller picture of the astronaut's life than the public had glimpsed before. Sherr spoke with Scientific American about Ride's loves, her experiences in space and the power of science for women.

posted 05-22-2014 02:37 PM               

Some points I didn’t like about the book. They are smallish overall and not a major distraction to the Sally Ride story. Both Sally and Lynn are feminists. Each had very different styles. Sally chose the path of stressing education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for young girls to make the next generation of girls able to compete. For the first women chosen as astronauts and every woman chosen to date there is no indication any standard was lowered. There shouldn’t be and I believe Sally would have been among the first to cry foul if standards were lowered.

Multiple times in the book Sherr tosses the phrase “white male”, and the word “conservative” like being either is a sin or flaw in character. That’s fine if Sherr believes that but there is no indication Sally believed that. She spent the majority of her life educating young girls to develop interest in science and technology. Being qualified is much better than being percentage(d) in.

Sherr points out that when Class 8, known as TFNG group was being discussed that some focus will be on selecting women and minorities. According to Sherr apparently Deke Slayton didn’t like that focus and left the meeting. This may have happened but what is missing is explaining Deke Slayton belonged to an era when fighter pilots where needed and those skills where absolutely necessary. When the TFNG era came along a large focus was going toward science rather than only exploration. Every Skylab mission had a science pilot trained as a scientist. Apollo 17 was the first mission to have a career scientist on board rather than scientists only receiving the data on Earth. It stands to reason many of the same people who did so well at selecting the M.G.A. era astronauts might not be suited to select Science Pilots or Mission Specialists. NASA was already in transition. Those transitions are sometimes ungraceful and never immediate. Sherr writes like NASA was broken and needed to be fixed. There is no indication Sally ever thought NASA was broken. Sally was on both the Rogers Committee and The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) "Thank you, onesmallstep" investigating the Challenger explosion and the Columbia disintegration. Incidents where clearly some NASA philosophy needed fixed. Sally did not hold a single punch on either. She wanted to fix the vein of philosophy that allowed those losses to happen. Sally and most people informed on the accidents believe neither would have happened if needed and already known changes where made much sooner. With Sherr’s account you get the impression that the only fix needed is put a woman in charge.

A very tiny point on Sally’s diet. Lynn Sherr called Sally a vegan on page 308. Sally was a pescetarian. Vegan’s avoid all animal products including fish. Pescetarians eat fish and avoid all red and white meats. The overall comments regarding Sally’s diet are poignant to a point Sherr did make.

My rant aside I still do like the book a lot. Obviously I think an additional edit could make it better by keeping editorials out and keeping the focus on Sally and Sally’s words. Lynn Sherr was a long time friend of Sally’s and she does tell some first hand stories about their friendship. Those stories are done very well, they do not change the focus from the subject to Lynn, rather they go a very long way toward helping define Sally’s personality.

posted 05-24-2014 02:56 PM               

Re outreach, Deke felt that the best way to find astronauts was to handpick them -- or to reward those who had independently contacted NASA. He had essentially hand-picked the 1962 group and much of the 1963 group, and had slow-rolled the selection of the 1965 scientist group, grudgingly accepted the 1966 group, hated the idea of the 1967 scientist group... and did not want ANY of the MOL astronauts (not because they weren't good, but because he didn't need them).

posted 05-27-2014 04:15 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Michael Cassutt:
I received a copy of this book yesterday and read it immediately and with great pleasure. It is astonishingly frank and well-done and filled with revelations about Ride's life and career. Go, buy, read.

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I totally second that...

posted 06-03-2014 08:29 AM               

Sally Ride revealed: New book shares secret life of America's first woman in space

In "Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space," released Tuesday (June 3) by Simon & Schuster, Sherr reveals the woman behind the trailblazing astronaut.

Sherr spoke with collectSPACE about the life and legacy of Sally Ride.

posted 06-09-2014 11:57 AM               

I should say pioneering astronaut, for, as pointed out in the book, Ride was aware of her role as a First Woman. Whether you were a feminist with a small or capital 'f', the significance of her achievement could not be denied. Even Phyllis Schlafly admired her. Mind you, we could go into overtime discussing the finer points of the women's movement in the 60s and 70s, but suffice to say Ride was the beneficiary of a liberal (small 'l') upbringing (her late father, an Eisenhower Republican, could be seen by some as an early proto-feminist), intelligence, and caring mentors in school, tennis, and her science career.

Sherr's points on this topic do not detract, because they serve to put Ride in the middle of an era of great change politically and socially. The comments by reporters at the time of her first flight certainly make one (male or female) cringe, but at the same time show what Ride was up against and that she handled all challenges with intelligence and hard work. In this she was certainly aided by (no surprise?) two men: George Abbey, in her selection, with high praise, to fly on STS-7; and her commander, Bob Crippen, who served as a role model as far as how to lead others in space or on the ground in her later roles as member of the Challenger and Columbia investigation boards, and CEO of Sally Ride Science.

As far as fixing a 'broken' NASA; it's clear Ride owed a great deal to an organization that made her famous, and gave back her expertise and great clout. And she certainly took advantage of it (who doesn't have a healthy ego?) but it was a double-edged sword: the cost to her privacy (and even safety), and forever being known only (to the outside world) as the First American Woman in Space. A poignant (and somewhat funny) anecdote finds Ride and an equally famous Rogers Commission member, Neil Armstrong, toting their own bags behind a gaggle of reporters in order to avoid them.

As mentioned by a poster above, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) on which Ride served was not called the Augustine Committee; that was a study conducted much later to chart a future course for NASA. Retired Adm. Harold Gehman headed up the CAIB. And yes, she pulled no punches serving on both accident boards, even commenting that she was distressed to hear 'echoes' of the flawed Challenger decisions repeating themselves with Columbia. What she emotionally felt and thought in losing her fellow astronaut Judy Resnik and her other friends and co-workers must have been gut-wrenching, but as shown in the book she carried on regardless.

The final chapters can indeed be sad and poignant, as Ride struggled with her personal relationship with her partner and the public 'face' (or front) she had to put out. That she had to conceal the real nature of their private life can be chalked up to an 'ideal' image one had to project and a reluctance to embarrass NASA and perhaps harm her own business/educational ventures. If she were still alive, in today's (a little) more accepting climate, one wonders if she would have felt more comfortable announcing her relationship with her partner.

posted 06-13-2014 10:39 AM               

Sally Ride: Life Stories from the Smithsonian"s Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington presented a program on Thursday (June 12) called "Sally Ride: Life Stories, about the life and historical impact of America's First Woman in Space" and the history of women entering the astronaut corps.

posted 06-16-2014 09:49 PM               

And here's an update from Lynn Sherr (via Facebook):

"I love space!" former President Clinton said to me, when my friend, author Linda Fairstein (her new page-turner, "Terminal City," is just out) handed him a copy of "SALLY RIDE: First American Woman in Space" at Michael's Restaurant in NYC today. He also noted that his wife had a copy, and I said that it was only appropriate for him to have his own.

posted 06-28-2014 08:50 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by OLDIE:
Has anyone read any of these, and, if so, how does this book compare?

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posted 06-30-2014 11:00 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
It's more than cool Emily, it's excellent. Thanks for posting the link for everyone to read (now, everyone go read).

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