Ghostwritten by the late newspaperman and author William Dufty, the father of San Francisco SupervisorBevan Dufty, "Lady Sings the Blues" was published three years before Holiday died in a New York hospital at age 44. The singer tells the story of her bruised life - a tale of teenage prostitution, racist indignities and abusive men, heroin addiction and heavy drinking, corrupt cops and jail time - without self-pity. Yet for all the factual inaccuracies and exaggerations for which the book has been taken to task since its publication 50 years ago, "Lady Sings the Blues" captures the tart voice and unflinching eye of one of the most affecting and mythicized artists of the last century. When she was born, her mother was 19, her father was 17 and they never lived under the same roof. Like other stories in this frank, funny and compelling book, what's on the page doesn't always jibe with the facts dug up by Holiday's biographers.
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