Best/Definitive/Most Accurate Billie Holiday bio?

[tranemonk]

Hey... Is there a book out there that you would consider the best biography of her? I was listening to a random cut of hers on KCSM. I know the general outlines of her life (sexual abuse, bisexuality?, obviously racism, etc.), but I'd like to get more reliable info. Thanks.

[Rooster_Ties]

(Our own) Chris Albertson’s?

[JSngry]

Donald Clarke - Billie Holliday:Wishing zon The Moon

https://share.google/mLHaof3scG4hDuReS

Accept no substitutes!

[Dan Gould]

3 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

(Our own) Chris Albertson’s?

Pretty sure Chris's work was on Bessie Smith and his criticism of things like Lady Sings The Blues was based on personal knowledge, not published research?

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

Pretty sure Chris's work was on Bessie Smith and his criticism of things like Lady Sings The Blues was based on personal knowledge, not published research?

Oh shoot, his book was on Bessie Smith. That’s what I get for answering as I was walking out the door (hence my super short reply). Oops!

[jazzbo]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Donald Clarke - Billie Holliday:Wishing zon The Moon

https://share.google/mLHaof3scG4hDuReS

Accept no substitutes!

This is the best one I've read.

[Big Beat Steve]

12 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Oh shoot, his book was on Bessie Smith. That’s what I get for answering as I was walking out the door (hence my super short reply). Oops!

And here I was wondering why, after reading your post, a seach on the www did not yield any bio by Chris Albertson on Billie Holiday ... 

Edited July 26 by Big Beat Steve

[Fer Urbina]

I have a vague recollection of having heard that Stuart Nicholson was working on a new edition of his biography including Linda Kuehl's tapes, who were now owned by Toby Byron.

Whether or not that's the case, I see that Kuehl's materials were gifted by Byron to Johns Hopkins University in 2022, see: https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/3/resources/1699

F

[bertrand]

Avoid that wretched TV movie with Andra Day. Total crap.

[ghost of miles]

Third or fourth or wherever I am in line for endorsing the Donald Clarke bio, which iirc was written with some limited access to the Kuehl material. Though it's now been 30 years since that book came out, and I haven't read everything about BH that's been published since. Another title that comes to mind is Robert G. O'Meally's Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday, which offers a good overview of her musical career and life and includes photographs on nearly every page. Plus Farah Jasmine Griffin's If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday, although that one's been out for awhile too, now that I look it up.