About the Author
Leslie Gourse is a well-known jazz historian, critic and biographer. A series of her articles on women jazz instrumentalists won an ASCAP award. Her biography, "Wynton Marsalis: Skain's Domain," received praise in The New York Times Sunday Book Review. Her biography of Billie Holiday was chosen as one of the best young adult books by the New York Public Library's Donnell Library Branch. "Straight No Chaser," her biography of Thelonious Monk, was chosen one of the top two jazz books of 1998 by the leading jazz magazine, Jazz Times. Her biographies of Nat King Cole ("Unforgettable") and Sarah Vaughan ("Sassy") were nominated for Ralph J. Gleason awards. The New Yorker magazine published a feature article about "Unfogettable." Her first book, a novel, "With Gall and Honey," won the Columbia-Doubleday award and was a Book of the Month Club recommendation. She has written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers on a variety of subjects, including New York, social trends, contemporary life styles, Paris, and Native Americans, though she is best known for her writings on jazz. Her books have been published by St. Martin's Press, Scribner's, Schirmer Books, Atheneum, Franklin Watts, Aladdin, Globe Pequot, and others.
