Bessie Smith
Kay, Jackie, 1961-2021
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Bessie Smith was born in Tennessee in 1894. Orphaned by the age of nine, she sang on street corners before becoming a big name in travelling shows. In 1923 she made her first recording for a new start-up called Columbia Records. It sold 780,000 copies, making her a star. Smith's life was notoriously difficult: she drank pints of 'bathtub gin', got into violent fist fights, spent huge sums of money and had passionate love affairs with men and women. She once single-handedly fought off a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. As a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, Jackie Kay found in Bessie someone with whom she could identify and who she could idolise. In this remarkable book Kay mixes biography, fiction, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life.
Main title:
Bessie Smith / Jackie Kay.
Author:
Kay, Jackie, 1961-, author
Imprint:
London : Faber & Faber Limited, 2021.©2021
Collation:
xii, 203 pages ; 20 cm.
Notes:
A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:
9780571362929 (pbk)9780571362929
Dewey class:
782.421643092782.42
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
402906
More Information:
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandringham Library | Adult Non Fiction - Biography | 782.42 SMI | Available |