A Daredevil Two Boards: Ralph Samuelson, The Lake Pepin Pioneer Who Invented Water Skiing

Gregor Ziemer

ISBN 10: 097441431X / ISBN 13: 9780974414317

Published by Hunter Halverson Press, 2005

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Daredevil Two Boards: Ralph Samuelson, The Lake Pepin Pioneer Who Invented Water Skiing
• Publisher: Hunter Halverson Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 097441431X
• ISBN 13: 9780974414317
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

A Daredevil & Two Boards tells the inspiring true story of the Minnesota small town man with big ideas who invented water skiing. On a hot July day in 1922, Lake Pepin fisherman Ralph Samuelson convinced his brother Ben to pull him up out of the deep blue waters of the mysterious Mississippi and into sports history. With two pine board strapped to his feet, Samuelson rose up to conquer the water as well as the skepticism of the local detractors who had been gathering at the river's edge for weeks to "watch him drown." War history author Gregor Ziemer tells the life story of the ordinary man whose unshakable faith enabled him to achieve the impossible - to walk on water.

About the Author

Gregor Ziemer was a war correspondent who first reported from inside Nazi Germany, where he lived from 1928-1939 as director of the American School in Berlin. Ziemer fled Germany and returned to his wife's hometown of Lake City, Minnesota, the Mississippi River city where Ralph Samuelson had invented water skiing. He later returned to Germany as a correspondent with General George Patton's Army. Ziemer is the author of New York Times Bestselling book, "Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi" and, with his daughter, the top selling book, "Two Thousand and Ten Days of Hitler." In 1943, RKO General Productions released the blockbluster movie, "Hitler's Children," based upon Ziemer's work. He later coauthored the children's book, "Whirlaway Hopper," with his wife. In addition to writing subsequent screenplays and articles for such publications as "The Saturday Evening Post" and "Good Housekeeping", Ziemer served as director of the American Foundation for the Blind as well as director of the Institute of Lifetime Learning. He lived in California but spent summers in Lake City, Minn., where late in life he met and interviewed Ralph Samuelson and wrote the life story of The Father of Water Skiing. Gregor Ziemer died in 1982. His water skiing manuscript was lost until 2004 when it was rediscovered by Hunter Halverson Press and published in June 2005.