Bessie
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Bessie Smith, the great singer known as the "Empress of the Blues," is considered by many to be the greatest blues singer of all time. She was also a successful vaudeville entertainer who became the highest-paid African American performer of the Roaring Twenties. Chris Albertson's revised and expanded edition of the biography of this extraordinary artist debunks many of the myths that have circulated since her untimely death in 1937. Albertson writes with insight and candor about the singer's personal life and her career, supplementing his historical research with dozens of interviews with her relatives, friends, and associates, including Ruby Walker Smith, a niece by marriage who toured with Bessie for over a decade.
Liked Bessie? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Bessie. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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Raising Fences: A Black Man's Love Story Shares memoir, African American, nonfiction -
Sweet Summer: Growing up with and without My Dad Shares memoir, African American, nonfiction -
Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights Shares memoir, nonfiction, history -
Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of a Young Black Girl in the Rural South Shares memoir, nonfiction, history
“If you want more of the same (history about african american), start with these.”
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Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington
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Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana History
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America Behind The Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans
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Dreamgirl and Supreme Faith: My Life as a "Supreme": My Life as a Supreme
