WISHING ON THE MOON: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BILLIE HOLIDAY
Donald Clarke
Condition: Near fine in very good dust jacket. Minor edge wear to jacket; interior pages bright, binding tight.
About the Book
In Wishing on the Moon, Donald Clarke offers a definitive, unsentimental portrait of Billie Holiday one of the twentieth centurys most haunting and influential singers. Moving beyond myth and sensationalism, Clarke reconstructs the tangled web of her life: her triumphs and self-sabotage, her artistry and addiction, her defiant intelligence and need for love.
Drawing on new interviews, extensive research, and rare archival material, the biography dismantles the romanticised legend of Lady Day and replaces it with a fully human portrait a woman both wounded and extraordinary, whose art distilled the pain and grace of her existence.
Clarkes book is as much a cultural history as a life story: a meditation on race, gender, and survival in an America both fascinated and threatened by its own musical soul.
About the Author
Donald Clarke is a writer and critic specialising in music and cultural history. He is the editor and principal author of The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, described by the Sunday Times as indispensable. He lives with his wife and son in Norfolk, England.
