Bessie Smith (Outlines) [Paperback]

Jackie Kay (Author)

Book Description

Series: Outlines | Publication Date: October 1997

Bessie Smith was certainly the greatest blues singer who lived and probably one of the greatest and most influential singers of the twentieth century. Her blues songs mirrored her tempestuous life as she travelled across America performing and making records, taking both male and female lovers, achieving great wealth and stardom until her eventual decline during the years of the depression. She died in a car crash in 1937 aged 43.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In one of the more interesting volumes in the "Outlines" series on gay and lesbian creators, Scottish-born poet and woman of color Kay profiles the great American blues singer, whose life inspired some of the poems in Kay's recent collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers. Although Kay gives fairly short shrift to Smith's lesbianism or bisexuality, she speaks authoritatively as one black woman about another. More a personal impression than a historical work, this book interweaves poems with a repetitive prose style that nonetheless strikes a sincere note. The author relies entirely on secondary sources, such as Chris Albertson's pathbreaking biography Bessie, but disagrees where she feels like it, e.g., about the now-established fact that Smith did not die as a result of racist Southern doctors refusing to treat her after a car accident, as a legend had it. Kay prefers to side with writers like Edward Albee, whose play The Death of Bessie Smith helped promulgate the myth, because even if it didn't happen that way, it could have. The reader is tempted to grant the author this amount of poetic license in an otherwise appealing text.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In this engrossing olio of biography, autobiography, poetry, and fiction, Kay creates an edgy atmosphere by switching focus by means of narrative jumps in and out of Smith's life and music--a chancy strategy, but it works, facilitating the interaction of Kay's and her subject's stories with minimal disorientation. Smith's reputed lesbianism is made prominent, for this book is part of the Outlines series "on leading gay and lesbian writers and creative artists," yet her music and career are amply and lovingly detailed as well. Indeed, this is primarily a warm, personable, evocative, and pleasing portrait of "the Empress of the Blues" that is also interesting as a study of two strong artistic female characters (Kay herself is the second) and the connections between their seemingly disparate lives. Blessed with a snazzy cover, interpolated poetry by Langston Hughes and Pablo Neruda (among others), and a rather abrupt but nice bibliography, this is quite a package, all told, for many sorts of readers. Mike Tribby

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Absolute Press (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1899791701
• ISBN-13: 978-1899791705
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Jazz

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Problem Child, November 27, 1999

By 

Anastasia Pappas (new york city) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bessie Smith (Outlines) (Paperback)

If you want to know about Bessie Smith's life, check out the Chris Albertson book. If you want a thumb-nail sketch of her life, check any descent Blues Enclyclopedia (even Encarta isn't half bad.) If you want a fictional account of a blues legend, try August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Trouble is, Kay tries to accomplish all three in the space of less than 200 pages. Smith's life was bigger than fiction, and FUN to read about. At best, this book will whet the appetite. But read it fast and move on...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A solid Bessie Smith primer but a lot of old news, October 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bessie Smith (Outlines) (Paperback)

For the person looking to just scratch the surface in understanding the Empress of the Blues, "Bessie Smith (Outlines)" hits the mark, giving the highlights and lowlights of her life and career. Perhaps, "Outline", the name of this book series, is an appropriate name given the length and depth of the book. For the Bessie diehards or those that want real depth, the book doesn't offer anything new or particularly insightful. Read the Chris Albertson book if you want the best bio on Bessie. Also, Kay annoyingly interjects fictional passages into the story, making it difficult to determine fact from fiction. I found that aspect irratating, particularly in a book so short. The back cover presents the Outline series as exploring the impact homosexual life has had on certain aritsts. Kay misses this point entirely. She actually avoids Smith's alleged homosexuality. It is a short (150 small size pages, large font) and easy read though.

4.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and Thoughtful, July 21, 2002

By 

Pamela A. Johnson (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bessie Smith (Outlines) (Paperback)

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.