Bessie Smith: A Poet's Biography of a Blues Legend

By Jackie Kay

Book Overview

A beautiful genre-bending tribute to the larger-than-life blues singer Bessie Smith. Scotland's National Poet blends poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction to create an entirely unique biography of the Empress of the Blues.

There has never been anyone else like Bessie Smith. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1894 and orphaned by the age of nine, Bessie Smith sang on street corners before becoming a big name in traveling shows. In 1923, she made her first recording for the newly founded Columbia Records. It sold 780,000 copies and catapulted her to fame. Known for her unmatched vocal talent, her timeless and personal blues narratives, her tough persona, and her ability to enrapture audiences with her raw voice, the Empress of the Blues remains a force and an enigma.

In this remarkable book, Kay combines history and personal narrative, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life, and to capture the soul of the woman she first identified with as a young Black girl growing up in Glasgow. Powerful and moving, Bessie Smith is at once a vivid biography of a central figure in American music history and a personal story about one woman's search for recognition.

A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593314271
• ISBN13: 9780593314272
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Lyrical and Thoughtful

A beautiful melody of a book, Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay evokes the life of the great blueswoman through a provocative interweaving of fact, poetry, blues lyrics, and imaginings. It is also about the awakening of a young girl's (the author's) sense of herself as female and black. If you prefer dry facts only, or are doing serious research, look to another biography. If there's a bit of repetition in this book, well, think about the blues. If you want to immerse yourself in Bessie's blues, read this book in one sitting, and read it out loud. Then get out your old vinyls and a bottle of gin, and read it again.