Considered by many to be the greatest blues singer of all time, Bessie Smith was also a successful vaudeville entertainer who became the highest paid African-American performer of the roaring twenties. This book--a revised and expanded edition of the classic biography of this extraordinary artist--debunks many of the myths that have circulated since her untimely death in 1937.

Chris Albertson writes with insight and candor about the singer's personal life and her career, supplementing his historical research with dozens of interviews with her relatives, friends, and associates, in...