She helped her brothers soar? but was the flight worth the fall?
It all started with two boys and a bicycle shop. Wilbur and Orville Wright, both unsuited to college and disinclined to leave home, jumped on the popular new fad of bicycle riding and opened a shop in Dayton, Ohio. Repairing and selling soon led to tinkering and building as the brothers offered improved models to their eager customers. Amid their success, a new dream began to take shape. Engineers across the world were puzzling over how to build a powered flying machine-and Wilbur and Orville wanted in on the challenge. But their younger sister, Katharine, knew they couldn't do it without her. The three siblings made a pact: the three of them would solve the problem of human flight.
As her brothers obsessed over blueprints and risked life and limb testing new models on the sand beaches of North Carolina, Katharine became the mastermind behind the scenes of their inventions. She sourced materials, managed communications, and kept Wilbur and Orville focused on their goal-even when it seemed hopeless. And in 1903, the Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of humankind.
What followed was the kind of fame and fortune the Wrights had never imagined. The siblings traveled the world to demonstrate their invention, trained other pilots, and built new machines that could fly higher and farther. But at the height of their success, tragedy wrenched the Wright family apart? and forced Katharine to make an impossible choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
From internationally bestselling author Tracey Enerson Wood, Katharine, the Wright Sister is an unforgettable novel that shines a spotlight on one of the most important and overlooked women in history, and the sacrifices she made so that others might fly.
"Everyone knows of Orville and Wilbur, the famous Wright brothers who invented and piloted the first powered airplane. But how many have heard of their sister Katharine, a vital member of the team? It was Katharine kept the family businesses afloat, Katharine who secured financial backers for the project, Katharine who marketed their invention worldwide. While the brothers were brilliant inventors and builders, Katharine was the glue that held their family and their business together. As important as she was to the Wright family, she has often been forgotten in the history books. No longer. THE WRIGHT SISTER will immerse you in the drama and excitement of Wilbur and Orville's first flights while simultaneously illuminating Katharine's work behind the scenes, recounting the deep sibling bond that tied the three together until tragedy ultimately wrenched their family apart"--
