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Nathalia Holt

Biography

Nathalia Holt

Nathalia Holt, PhD, is the New York Times bestselling author of THE BEAST IN THE CLOUDS, WISE GALS, THE QUEENS OF ANIMATION, RISE OF THE ROCKET GIRLS and CURED. She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, PBS and Time. She is a former fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard University. She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Pacific Grove, California.

Nathalia Holt

Books by Nathalia Holt

by Nathalia Holt - History, Nonfiction

By 1928, dozens of expeditions had scoured the Himalayas in search of the panda bear, an animal many believed to be a myth. That year, the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt and a small team of scientists and naturalists launched their own dangerous journey. Lost in blizzards, attacked by robbers, ravaged by illness, and cut off from food supplies, the brothers’ crew was pushed to its physical and emotional limits. They would accomplish what years of exploration had not --- introducing the panda to the Western world. Along the way, they documented a rapidly disappearing landscape and helped bring about a new era of conservation biology.

by Nathalia Holt - Biography, History, Nonfiction

In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues, were not the stereotypical femme fatales of spy novels. They were smart, courageous and groundbreaking agents at the top of their class, instrumental in both developing innovative tools for intelligence gathering --- and insisting (in their own unique ways) that they receive the credit and pay their expertise deserved. In WISE GALS, Nathalia Holt uses firsthand interviews with past and present officials and declassified government documents to uncover the stories of these four inspirational women.

by Nathalia Holt - Biography, History, Nonfiction

From Snow White to Moana, from Pinocchio to Frozen, the animated films of Walt Disney Studios have moved and entertained millions. But few fans know that behind these groundbreaking features was an incredibly influential group of women who fought for respect in an often ruthless male-dominated industry and who have slipped under the radar for decades. In THE QUEENS OF ANIMATION, bestselling author Nathalia Holt tells their dramatic stories for the first time, showing how these women infiltrated the boys' club of Disney's story and animation departments and used early technologies to create the rich artwork and unforgettable narratives that have become part of the American canon.

by Nathalia Holt - History, Nonfiction

In the 1940s and ’50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible. For the first time, RISE OF THE ROCKET GIRLS tells the stories of these women --- known as "human computers" --- who broke the boundaries of both gender and science.