Godwin reviews Wood

Saturday Review: “First in Flight: The Woman Behind the Wright Brothers,” a review by Rebecca Godwin of Tracey Enerson Wood’s Katharine, the Wright Sister: A Novel (2024), in NCLR Online Spring 2026

It is well known that the Outer Banks in North Carolina was the location for the Wright brothers’ historic flight on December 17, 1903. However, it is less known that missing from the sand dunes that day was the woman who played a key role in making that flight possible. Godwin’s review of Katharine, the Wright Sister sheds light on the story of an amazingly skilled woman that’s hardly mentioned alongside her famous brothers.

The novel addresses how Katharine Wright dedicated her life to the dream of “figuring out how to keep a flying machine in the air” and how she contributed to women’s participation in history. Godwin states that the book shows “the love, cooperation, and complementary skills that fueled this consequential accomplishment” through the siblings’ alternating perspectives while using extensive research into the historical record. Katharine not only financially provided for the family with her teaching position, “despite male candidates receiving hiring preference,” but also by choosing the site for flight, coaching the brothers on writing letters, figuring out and ordering needed materials, making clay models of wings, among many other things that would lead to the brothers’ success. Godwin praises Wood on her ability to “balance this strong woman’s story with equal attention to the historical context and Wilbur’s and Orville’s points of view” in order to give voice to Katharine’s aid in advancing human travel.