{"id":40429,"date":"2026-04-05T18:47:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T18:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/?p=40429"},"modified":"2026-04-05T18:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T18:48:06","slug":"bessie-by-chris-albertson-all-editions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/bessie-by-chris-albertson-all-editions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bessie by Chris Albertson (All Editions)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Bessie<\/em> by <a href=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/?s=Chris+Albertson\">Chris Albertson<\/a> is a biography of Bessie Smith, the blues singer known as the Empress of the Blues, who was the highest-paid African-American performer of the 1920s. Drawing on extensive interviews with Smith&#8217;s relatives, friends, and associates &#8212; including Ruby Walker Smith, a niece by marriage who toured with her for over a decade &#8212; Albertson writes candidly about both her career and her personal life. The book was first published in 1971 and has appeared in several editions, including a substantially revised and expanded version published by Yale University Press in 2005 that added new interview material, further detail on Smith&#8217;s early years, and a chapter covering responses to the original publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Genre:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/category\/autobiography-biography\/\">Autobiography\/Biography<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/category\/grier-rated\/\">Grier Rated<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/category\/music\/\">Music<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subjects:<\/strong> African American women singers \u2013 Biography; Biography &amp; Autobiography; Blues (Music); Singers \u2013 Biography \u2013 United States<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Comments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bessie<\/em> is widely regarded as the definitive biography of Bessie Smith and a landmark in blues scholarship. Albertson&#8217;s access to Ruby Walker Smith gave him material that no other biographer had, and his willingness to address Smith&#8217;s bisexuality &#8212; her relationships with women as well as men &#8212; was genuinely unusual for a mainstream music biography of the early 1970s. That candour is the primary reason for the book&#8217;s inclusion in the Grier checklist, and it remains the most substantive published account of that aspect of Smith&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2005 Yale University Press edition is the most complete version of the biography and the one most likely to be useful to contemporary readers. It corrects errors in earlier editions, incorporates decades of additional research, and contextualises the book&#8217;s original reception. The earlier Stein and Day editions (hardcover 1972, trade paperback 1982) and the Abacus\/Sphere trade paperback (1975) represent the book&#8217;s commercial life before the Yale revision and are of interest primarily to collectors tracking the biography&#8217;s publishing history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For lesbian readers specifically, <em>Bessie<\/em> is significant as one of the earliest major-press biographies to treat a Black female subject&#8217;s same-sex relationships with seriousness rather than evasion or sensationalism. Bessie Smith&#8217;s place in African-American cultural history is unassailable, and Albertson&#8217;s biography remains the foundation for any serious engagement with her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Publication History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-top\" style=\"grid-template-columns:30% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/albertson-bessie-stein-hardcover.jpg\" alt=\"Bessie by Chris Albertson, 1972 hardcover, Stein and Day\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody>\n<tr><td><strong>ISBN<\/strong><\/td><td>9780812814064<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publication Date<\/strong><\/td><td>1972<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publisher<\/strong><\/td><td>Stein and Day<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Format<\/strong><\/td><td>Hardcover<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>No. of Pages<\/strong><\/td><td>253<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Language<\/strong><\/td><td>English<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Rating<\/strong><\/td><td>Not Rated<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-top\" style=\"grid-template-columns:30% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/albertson-bessie-abacas.jpg\" alt=\"Bessie by Chris Albertson, 1975 trade paperback, Abacus Books (Sphere)\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody>\n<tr><td><strong>ISBN<\/strong><\/td><td>9780349100548<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publication Date<\/strong><\/td><td>03-Apr-75<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publisher<\/strong><\/td><td>Abacus Books (Sphere)<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Format<\/strong><\/td><td>Trade Paperback<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>No. of Pages<\/strong><\/td><td>288<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Language<\/strong><\/td><td>English<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Rating<\/strong><\/td><td>Not Rated<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-top\" style=\"grid-template-columns:30% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/albertson-bessie-stein-paper.jpg\" alt=\"Bessie by Chris Albertson, 1982 trade paperback, Stein &amp; Day\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody>\n<tr><td><strong>ISBN<\/strong><\/td><td>9780812817003<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publication Date<\/strong><\/td><td>01-Oct-82<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publisher<\/strong><\/td><td>Stein &amp; Day<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Format<\/strong><\/td><td>Trade Paperback<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>No. of Pages<\/strong><\/td><td>253<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Language<\/strong><\/td><td>English<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Rating<\/strong><\/td><td>Not Rated<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-top\" style=\"grid-template-columns:30% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Bessie-Chris-Albertson122162f.jpg\" alt=\"Bessie by Chris Albertson, 2005 trade paperback, Yale University Press\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody>\n<tr><td><strong>ISBN<\/strong><\/td><td>9780300107562<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publication Date<\/strong><\/td><td>10-Jun-05<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Publisher<\/strong><\/td><td>Yale University Press<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Format<\/strong><\/td><td>Trade Paperback<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>No. of Pages<\/strong><\/td><td>336<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Language<\/strong><\/td><td>English<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr><td><strong>Rating<\/strong><\/td><td>Not Rated<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bessie by Chris Albertson is a biography of Bessie Smith, the blues singer known as the Empress of the Blues, who was the highest-paid African-American performer of the 1920s. Drawing on extensive interviews with Smith&#8217;s relatives, friends, and associates &#8212; including Ruby Walker Smith, a niece by marriage who toured with her for over a &#8230; <a title=\"Bessie by Chris Albertson (All Editions)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/bessie-by-chris-albertson-all-editions\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Bessie by Chris Albertson (All Editions)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4344,4335,4382],"tags":[5925],"class_list":["post-40429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autobiographical-fiction","category-grier-rated","category-music","tag-authority-record"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bessie by Chris Albertson (All Editions) - Lesbian FunWorld Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chris Albertson&#039;s biography of Bessie Smith. 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