
- 368 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
'Paul Alexander tells her story in a way that could put her soul and our questions to rest' Gloria Steinem
'Bitter Crop shows just what lay behind that tragic, transcendent gift' Sunday Times
'Magnificent' Irish Times
Bitter Crop is an unconventional portrait of arguably America's most eminent jazz singer. Acclaimed biographer Paul Alexander shrewdly focuses on the last year of her life – with relevant flashbacks to provide context – to evoke and examine the persistent magnificence of Holiday's artistry when it was supposed to have declined, in the wake of her drug abuse, relationships with violent men, and run-ins with the law.
Relying on interviews with people who knew her and new material unearthed in private collections and institutional archives, Bitter Crop limns Holiday as a powerful, ambitious woman who overcame her flaws to triumph as a vital figure of American popular music.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title Page
- Also by Paul Alexander
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter 1: The Last Night at the Flamingo Lounge
- Chapter 2: A Woman of the World
- Chapter 3: Lady in Satin
- Chapter 4: A Little Jazz History
- Chapter 5: Bitter Crop
- Chapter 6: When Your Lover Has Gone
- Chapter 7: It Happened Out West
- Chapter 8: Goodbye to the City of Lights
- Chapter 9: The Whole Truth
- Chapter 10: “I’m Billie Holiday!”
- Chapter 11: The Death of the President
- Chapter 12: Memory and Desire
- Chapter 13: Farewell to Storyville
- Chapter 14: Fade Out
- Chapter 15: Angel of Harlem
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
- Illustration Credits
- A Note on the Type