Bessie, by Chris Albertson, New York: Stein and Day, 1972; revised edition: New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Bessie was hailed as the best biography ever written about a black performer when it was first published in 1972 and has earned further praise for its even more informative 2003 edition. Author Chris Albertson, a longtime devotee of traditional jazz and blues, had the foresight and good fortune to tackle the fascinating story of ‘The Empress of the Blues’ when relatives and associates of Bessie Smith — notably her niece, Ruby Walker Smith — were still around to give first-hand accounts of her exploits. Albertson traces Smith’s career from her Chattanooga origins through her rise to stardom on the Theater Owners Booking Association circuit and her best-selling records, on to her death in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1937, offering new insights and doing away with myths and ill-informed versions of events that circulated for years.