12 December 2024

By Göran R Buckhorn

It has become a tradition at this time of the year for HTBS to suggest rowing books to put on your Christmas wish list.

This is going to be a two-part article. Today’s piece will be about some of the rowing books that were published this year, and tomorrow’s piece will be about rowing books that absolutely should be on every rower’s bookshelf.

On Finches Field – The Home of London Rowing Club since 1871, edited by Julian Ebsworth. This book, which contains brilliant illustrations and maps, celebrates London Rowing Club’s pioneering headquarters on Putney Reach. Chris Dodd, who publish a book on the club, Water Boiling Aft London Rowing Club, The First 150 Years 1856-2006 (2006), reviewed the book on HTBS. Read his review here.

Titan of the Thames: The Life of Lord Desborough by Sandy Nairne and Peter Williams. This biography tells the story of William Henry Grenfell, Lord Desborough, who was, Chris Dodd, wrote in his HTBS review of the book, “a sportsman par excellence, indulging in fencing, cricket, tarpon fishing, game shooting, swimming, running, rowing, punt racing, boxing, tennis, drag hounds, harriers, wrestling, croquet, stické, cricket, athletics, mountaineering, bartitsu, four-in-hand carriage driving, fishing… and the greatest of these were pulling an oar, punting by pole or pointing an épée.” Read Chris’s review here.

The Mystery of the Cambridge Bow by Dr. Aaron I. Jackson. Dr. Jackson, who is a member of the Broken Oars Podcast, was invited to edit this “never-before-seen” Doyle manuscript. He ran it in an episode on the podcast and it was an instant success. In my review of the novella, I wrote “Aaron decided to turn it into an ebook and a paperback. He even contacted the Sherlock Holmes Society to make sure the text was linguistically and stylistically accurate for the time period. He got their blessing. I think he has done a grand job with this. The story is worth many readers”. Read my review here.

Rowing Blazers (revised and expanded edition) by Jack Carlson. Ten years ago, Carlson published the wonderful coffee table book Rowing Blazers, which has now come out in a revised edition. It “has more people of colour in its pages than ten years previously, but the still comparatively low numbers emphasise how far the sport still has to go,” Tim Koch wrote in his review. He continued, “Further, while the 2014 edition of Rowing Blazers concentrated on clubs in Europe, North America and the older members of what was once called the British Commonwealth, new pictures in the 2024 version show blazers from places such as the Shanghai Rowing Club and the Bumblebee Rowing Club in China, the Buenos Aires Rowing Club and the Tigre Boat Club in Argentina, the Nassau Rowing Club in the Bahamas and the Partez Rowing Club in Japan.” Read Tim’s review here.

Yvon, photographes et canotiers, deux frères précurseurs de la photo sportive (1852-1867) by Jean Distel. The French Yvon brothers, Charles and Jules, were the first in France to photograph sail boats and oared vessels, as well as the athletes. The Yvon brothers asked the oarsmen “to strike the pose by suggesting the movement while their boats were tightly moored along the river Seine. The book offers a tremendous source of information with outstanding illustrations, a must-read for rowing lovers and photography lovers alike,” Hélène Rémond wrote in her review. Read Hélène’s review here.

News Fit To Print: The Birth of War Reporting by Chris Dodd. In famous rowing historian and writer Chris Dodd’s debut as a novelist, the readers meet war reporter George Washburn, who has a background in rowing, as he is following Union commander George McClellan before the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. Read an excerpt from Chris’s novel here.

Alice Milliat, La femme olympique by Sophie Danger. In this biography, Sophie Danger tells the story of Alice Milliat, who was a pioneer of women’s sport and helped organize the first Women’s Olympic Games. “In sport’s history, competitive rower Alice Milliat has definitely played a tremendous role in increasing recognition of women’s sports and changing the mentalities, even though there are things that remain to be done. Sophie Danger’s book helps Alice Milliat to come out of anonymity as she was sidelined after the Second World War and delves the reader into a captivating journey with a compelling portrait of Alice Milliat,” Hélène Rémond wrote in her review of the book. Read Hélène’s review here.

My Lifelong Jottings During Peace and War by Stan Cwiklinski. Following in the footsteps of Bill Stowe and Emory Clark, who both have published their accounts of becoming Olympic champions with the Vesper crew who competed in the eight at the 1964 Tokyo Games, a third member of the crew, Stan Cwiklinski, published his recollection of his rowing endevour this autumn. Among his rowing medals is also a bronze medal at the 1965 European Championships. Cwiklinski (pronounced “quick-LIN-skee”), graduated from La Salle University in 1966 and went on to join the U.S. Navy and was awarded the Navy Bronze Star Medal as the Skipper of a NASTY Patrol Boat in the Vietnam War. After the war, he became a navy deep sea mixed-gas diving officer. After 22 years of active naval service, Cwiklinski went into environmental protection and became an Oil Spill Containment and Cleanup Manager-Specialist, and his expertise was needed during the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in the late 1980s. My Lifelong Jottings During Peace and War is richly illustrated from Cwiklinski’s days as an oarsman, Navy officer and environmentalist.

Out Of My Scull: Mayhem & Misadventures on Delaware’s Christina River by Danielle J Battaglia. Twenty-five years ago, at age 50, Danielle Battaglia started to row out of the Wilmington Rowing Center (WRC) located on the Christina River in Delaware. Her Out Of My Scull tells many entertaining and lighthearted stories on and off the water. Battaglia confesses to have used some creative license, or, as she puts it, “Not all tales are described exactly as they happened or involve the people I’ve placed in the scenes.” This is a book for those who know nothing or little about rowing, so you will not become an Olympic champion after reading it. But you will get all the ins and outs of the benefits of recreational rowing. A fun read.

Books for Christmas will continue tomorrow with some HTBS favorites.