Roll over image to zoom in Click on image to zoom

Bessie Smith

Name: Bessie Smith
Brand: Vintage
SKU: 9780593314272-PRUSDTR-US
Price: 114.0 HKD
Availability: InStock

A Poet's Biography of a Blues Legend

Jackie Kay (Author) ... more

Edition: US - Paperback / softback

Variant

Price:

HK$114.00 HK$170.00

Stock:

Re-stocking soon

Quantity:

Product Info

English • Age Adult - Adult

224 pages • 5.14 x 7.99 x 0.61 in

Approx. weight: 0.49 lb

Publication date: 28 Sep,2021

Barcode: 9780593314272 • Vintage

More books in English for Age Adult - Adult

Biography: arts and entertainment
Composers and songwriters
Musicians singers bands and groups
Biography: general
Gender studies: women and girls

Share this product

By: Jackie Kay

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.