Research Catalog
Bessie Smith : a poet's biography of a blues legend
- Title
- Bessie Smith : a poet's biography of a blues legend / Jackie Kay.
- Author
- Kay, Jackie, 1961-
- Publication
- New York : Vintage Books, 2021.
- ©2021
Items in the Library & Off-site
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JND 22-1 | Performing Arts Research Collections - Music |
Details
- Description
- xiv, 205 pages; 21 cm
- Summary
- "Known for her prodigious musical talent, her timeless blues narratives about personal and socioeconomic problems, her tough persona, and her innate ability to enrapture audiences with her raw voice, Bessie Smith--the Empress of the Blues--receives a unique biographical treatment in this special life narrative captured by one of Scotland's finest poets. By masterfully blending research, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and her own experiences in listening to Bessie Smith, Jackie Kay brings Smith to life, chronicling her humble beginnings in Tennessee to her national touring and recording success to her troubled relationships and her tragic end. The result is a lyrical tribute that not only captures Smith's personality but manages to reproduce her voice as her lyrics echo throughout the text. Bessie Smith lives on, and as Kay argues, she is relevant now more than ever"--
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Biographies.
- Note
- "Originally published... in Great Britain by Absolute Press, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Bath, in 1997, and subsequently published reat Britian by Faber & Faber Limited, London, in 2021."--Title page verso.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-202).
- Contents
- 'The red graveyard' -- Introduction -- In the house of the blues -- Chattanooga, 1894 -- In the Ma's footsteps -- The trunk and the no-good man -- Wax -- Ruby on the road -- Tales of the Empress -- The blues -- Mississippi, 1937.
- Call Number
- JND 22-1
- ISBN
- 9780593314272
- 0593314271
- LCCN
- 2021005504
- OCLC
- 1236898904
- Author
- Kay, Jackie, 1961- author.
- Title
- Bessie Smith : a poet's biography of a blues legend / Jackie Kay.
- Publisher
- New York : Vintage Books, 2021.
- Copyright Date
- ©2021
- Edition
- Vintage books original.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-202).
- Other Form:
- Online version: Kay, Jackie, 1961- Bessie Smith Vintage books original edition. New York : Vintage Books, 2021. 9780593314289 (DLC) 2021005505
- Research Call Number
- JND 22-1