7/4/2023 0 Comments John szwed billie holidayThough Szwed says there are plenty of incidents that the book skips over or changes, Blues emerged at a time of popular interest in stories of artists who overcame obstacles “In our time we’ve drifted back toward that,” he adds, “what Joyce Carol Oates called ‘pathographies,’ instead of biographies, long books with every illness and every failure in them.” By using her autobiography to tell the world what she wanted to the world to know, she was able to respond to the prevailing idea that her story was one of sadness alone. Holiday was working with a myth that already existed when in 1956 she released her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. Still, the idea of Holiday defined by suffering was already beginning to take hold. That avoidance was made easier by the fact that, even when she was at her most productive, her music didn’t fit in with the popular styles of the time. During the height of her career, only the most scandalous tabloids were covered Holiday’s backstory more legitimate publications often stayed away from her.
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