BILLIE HOLIDAY

HOLIDAY, Billie (1915-1959) and William Francis DUFTY (1916-2002). Lady Sings the Blues. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1956.

First edition, boldly signed and inscribed by Billie Holiday. Inscribed in blue ballpoint pen on the flyleaf ‘For Mr. & Mrs. Kelley, Thanks for Everything, Billie Holiday.’

On publication of Billie’s Lady Sings the Blues, which was co-authored by New York Post editor William Dufty, the autobiography was praised by the New York Times for its powerful story of ‘a woman who is probably the foremost living singer of the blues... at her best, she has something like genius.’ Opening with the song Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday gave back-to-back concerts at Carnegie Hall on 10 November 1956 to promote the recently published autobiography, accompanied by narration from Gilbert Millstein of The New York Times, who read excerpts of the book between songs. Less than three years later, Billie would be dead at the age of 44.

Octavo (209 x 140 mm). Photographic endpapers, original red cloth.