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

<p><b>'Paul Alexander tells her story in a way that could put her soul and our questions to rest' Gloria Steinem</b><br><b>'<i>Bitter Crop </i>shows just what lay behind that tragic, transcendent gift' <i>Sunday Times </i></b><br><b>'Magnificent' <i>Irish Times</i><br></b><i><br>Bitter Crop </i>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.<br><br>Relying on interviews with people who knew her and new material unearthed in private collections and institutional archives, <i>Bitter Crop </i>limns Holiday as a powerful, ambitious woman who overcame her flaws to triumph as a vital figure of American popular music.</p>