Daniel james brown biography

Interview

A Conversation With Daniel James Brown about The Boys in the Boat, the award-winning and bestselling tale of Joe Rantz and the 1936 Olympic eight-oar crew from the University of Washington.

Q.

How did you discover the story that became The Boys in the Boat?

A: One day about six years ago, my neighbor, a lady in her midsixties whom I knew only as Judy, came up to me after a homeowners' association meeting.

She said her father, who was in the last weeks of his life and under hospice care at her house, was reading one of my earlier books.

Daniel james brown biography life

He was enjoying it and she wondered if I would come by to meet him. Of course I said yes. A few days later I sat down with her father, Joe Rantz, and after a while the conversation turned first to his experiences growing up during the Great Depression and then to his experiences rowing for a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics.

As I talked with Joe, I noted that tears came read