Iron Horse Cowgirls: Louise Scherbyn and the Women Motorcyclists of the 1930s and 1940s - Paperback

by Linda Back McKay (Author), Kate St Vincent Vogl (Author)

Before Louise Scherbyn founded the Women's International Motorcycle Association, she was simply a working girl who loved motorcycling--at a time when women weren't allowed to wear pants, roads weren't hard-topped, and handlebars could come apart while riding. The hardest part? Auxiliaries she looked to for support each proved to be the wrong fit--some uncomfortably, disastrously so. All Louise wanted was for women riders to have a proper space of their own. For that she would ultimately have to forge a new path.

This book tells the fascinating story of Scherbyn's journey in forming the first stand-alone women-only motorcycle association. Chapters cover 225,000 miles and two decades' worth of community-building, hostilities, physical and professional attacks, recovery, sisterhood and more. Scherbyn paved the way for women motorcyclists across the world while facing a storm of threats and uncertainties, driving ahead with newfound friends and her singular, unifying vision for women who ride.

Author Biography

The late Linda Back McKay was a poet, writer, coach, and teaching artist. Her work appeared in literary publications such as Great River Review, Water Stone Review, and White Pelican Review. She taught at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Kate St. Vincent Vogl's essays appear in best-selling anthologies such as Why We Ride and Listen to Your Mother, and her fiction has received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board and from the Anderson Center. She teaches at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.