’Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space’ by Lynn Sherr (Simon & Schuster) “If you woke up Sally Ride in the middle of the night and asked her what one word best described her,” Sherr writes, “she would say, according to everyone who knew her best, ‘Physicist.’ ” Her aim was to be a college professor, but in 1977, several months before her graduation from Stanford with a PhD, she read a headline in the student newspaper - “NASA to Recruit Women” - and soon sent off her application, as did some 8,000 others. A sports enthusiast and gifted athlete, Ride took up tennis as a teenager, becoming so good on the amateur circuit that she briefly considered going professional.īut something else was more alluring. From early on, she was introverted and guarded but raised by her parents with the liberal mind-set (unusual for the 1950s) that women were equal to men. Ride was a California gal, born into a loving and free-thinking family, but one that was not overly demonstrative. Though rare to show anger and a diplomatic leader, she did not suffer fools gladly. Sherr effectively goes beyond Ride’s familiar public facade - the bright smile and twinkling blue eyes - and reveals a complex woman who could be easy-going one day, hard-hearted the next and inscrutable about her love life. space program during Ride’s stint as an astronaut and in the process became her friend. To my disappointment, I never had the opportunity to meet Ride, but Lynn Sherr has provided the next best thing: a biography of America’s first woman in space that is riveting, beautifully written and rich in detail, largely because of the cooperation of family and colleagues in sharing reminiscences and correspondence.Īs an ABC News reporter, Sherr covered the U.S. I had a second chance to blast free from Earth when I became a finalist in the journalist-in-space competition, until the Challenger disaster in 1986 put an end to that contest. When I was a graduate student in physics, I applied to be an astronaut and would have entered NASA in 1978, along with Ride, if I had been chosen. Full disclosure: I wanted to be Sally Ride.
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