THE BOYS IN THE BOAT


Nine boys' epic quest for gold, and one boy's long voyage back to a place called home.



The Boys in the Boat celebrates the 1936 U.S. men’s eight-oar rowing team—nine working class boys who stormed the rowing world, transformed the sport, and galvanized the attention of millions of Americans.

The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers from the American West, the boys took on and defeated successive echelons of privilege and power. They vanquished the sons of bankers and senators rowing for elite eastern universities, the sons of British aristocrats rowing for Oxford and Cambridge, and finally the Aryan sons of the Nazi state rowing for Adolf Hitler.

Against the grim backdrop of the Great Depression, they reaffirmed the American notion that merit, in the end, outweighs birthright. They reminded the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together. And they provided hope that in the titanic struggle that lay just ahead, the ruthless might of the Nazis would not prevail over American grit, determination, and optimism.

But The Boys in the Boat is also the heart warming story of one of the boys in particular. Cast aside by his family at an early age, abandoned and left to fend for himself, Joe Rantz rows not just for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard, to dare again to trust in others, and to find his way back home.

Welcome


Thanks for visiting my web site.


I'm happy to announce that the Viking Press will be publishing my upcoming book, The Boys in the Boat, and the Weinstein Company has optioned the film rights for the book. Kenneth Branagh is slated to direct the film.

The Boys in the Boat will also be published by MacMillan in the U.K. and throughout the British Commonwealth. There will be German, French, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Brazilian, Korean, and Hungarian editions as well.

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Daniel James Brown

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To learn about my previous books, please click on "Indifferent Stars" or "Under a Flaming Sky" at the top of this page.


A Bit About Me


I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Diablo Valley College, the University of California at Berkeley, and UCLA. I taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford before becoming a technical writer and editor. I now write narrative nonfiction books full time. My primary interest as a writer is in bringing compelling historical events to life as vividly and accurately as I can.

I live in the country outside of Seattle, Washington with my wife, two daughters, and an assortment of cats, dogs, chickens, sheep, and honeybees. When I am not writing, I am likely to be birding, gardening, fly fishing, reading American history, reading Shakespeare, or chasing coyotes away from the sheep.

If you have comments or questions about my work please feel free to email me.