Diana's Fitness, Fashion & Beauty

Book excerpt: Diana’s Fitness, Fashion & Beauty is one of 4 volumes in the Sports She Wrote series written by the first woman with her own weekly sports column in a major American newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, from 1898 to 1901. Her real name (which she never revealed in print) was Mary Lagen, a prolific writer and bicycling pioneer, who inaugurated her “Athletic Woman” column at the age of 46. Diana was a strong proponent of physical fitness and athletics for women. She advocated exercise and good health as foundational aspects of well-rounded womanhood and lifelong happiness, as well as fundamental aspects of female beauty. Her devotion to fashion, diet, beauty and health endured for years beyond her “Athletic Woman” column, as she later became one of the first women editors of the “Woman’s Page” in a major American newspaper. This volume features 213 articles (120,000 words) presented in the following categories: fitness & athletics (60), fencing (12), boxing (5), dance (5), fashion (91), and beauty (40). Diana is an engaging writer with a keen observational eye and clever wordplay. The other three volumes presenting Diana's column are Diana's Ball Sports, Diana's Outdoor Sports, and Diana's Anecdotes & Aphorisms. Additional articles on fitness, fashion and beauty are included in the following volumes of the Sports She Wrote series: Physical Fitness, Health, & Beauty; Physical Education & Culture; 7 Exercise Manuals; What to Wear; and Adelia Brainerd, The Outdoor Woman of Harper’s Bazar. Sports She Wrote is a 31-volume time-capsule of primary documents written by more than 500 women in the 19th century.