Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year

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'Paul Alexander tells her story in a way that could put her soul and our questions to rest' Gloria Steinem
'Bitter Crop shows just what lay behind that tragic, transcendent gift' Sunday Times
'Magnificent' Irish Times

Bitter Crop is an unconventional portrait of arguably America's most eminent jazz singer. Acclaimed biographer Paul Alexander shrewdly focuses on the last year of her life - with relevant flashbacks to provide context - to evoke and examine the persistent magnificence of Holiday's artistry when it was supposed to have declined, in the wake of her drug abuse, relationships with violent men, and run-ins with the law.

Relying on interviews with people who knew her and new material unearthed in private collections and institutional archives, Bitter Crop limns Holiday as a powerful, ambitious woman who overcame her flaws to triumph as a vital figure of American popular music.

Reviews

The unfinished life of Billie Holiday haunts us. In Bitter Crop, Paul Alexander tells her story in a way that could put her soul and our questions to rest -- GLORIA STEINEM
In its layered exploration of Holiday's life and death, Bitter Crop shows just what lay behind that tragic, transcendent gift * * Sunday Times * *
Magnificent . . . Alexander recreates these seminal moments with sentimental drama * * Irish Times * *
Alexander pieces together some wonderful accounts of the singer by her close friends, to depict Holiday as resourceful and resilient * * Wall Street Journal * *
Chronicling Holiday's career, Alexander covers in meticulous detail her early successes; collaborations . . . and the music itself, including 1958's Lady in Satin, her penultimate album and a "masterpiece of longing and sorrow" made singular by her beautifully "damaged, tortured voice". The result is an excellent biography befitting of its inimitable subject * * Publishers Weekly * *
Ambitious. . . . In tracing Holiday's longtime drug and alcohol use, which damaged her health and led to her spending nearly a year in prison for narcotics possession, Alexander also delves into the unwarranted sensationalism with which the press often covered these matters at the time * * New Yorker * *
A revealing, up-close look at a musical genius who became an American icon -- DON WINSLOW
Alexander's evocative prose seamlessly complements the painstaking research that he conducted . . . he has written a tale as unique as Holiday's voice and, more importantly, given voice to the life of an American original * * Kirkus (starred review) * *
The first major Holiday biography in more than two decades, Bitter Crop benefits from a tight focus and a cinematic structure. Alexander sets vivid scenes as he moves through the closing months of a life that was difficult from the start, weaving in detailed flashbacks to provide context for where Holiday found herself during her final act. * * Boston Globe * *
A quietly gripping read * * Harper's Magazine * *

Author Bio

Paul Alexander has published eight books, among them Rough Magic, a biography of Sylvia Plath, and Salinger, a biography of J. D. Salinger that was the basis of the documentary Salinger that appeared on PBS, Netflix and HBO. His nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Newsday, New York, the Guardian, The Nation, the Washington Post, and Rolling Stone. He teaches at Hunter College in New York.