Princess Noire - by Nadine Cohodas (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: New York: Pantheon Books, 2010.

Book Synopsis

Born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, Nina Simone (1933-2003) began her musical life playing classical piano. A child prodigy, she wanted a career on the concert stage, but when the Curtis Institute of Music rejected her, the devastating disappointment compelled her to change direction. She turned to popular music and jazz but never abandoned her classical roots or her intense ambition. By the age of twenty six, Simone had sung at New York City's venerable Town Hall and was on her way. Tapping into newly unearthed material on Simone's family and career, Nadine Cohodas paints a luminous portrait of the singer, highlighting her tumultuous life, her innovative compositions, and the prodigious talent that matched her ambition.
With precision and empathy, Cohodas weaves the story of Simone's contentious relationship with audiences and critics, her outspoken support for civil rights, her two marriages and her daughter, and, later, the sense of alienation that drove her to live abroad from 1993 until her death. Alongside these threads runs a more troubling one: Simone's increasing outbursts of rage and pain that signaled mental illness and a lifelong struggle to overcome a deep sense of personal injustice.

Review Quotes

"A detailed and meticulously researched account. . . . Neither partisan nor judgmental, the author commendably preserves a detached yet sympathetic tone throughout." -- Times Literary Supplement

"A useful narrative." -- Journal of NC Association of Historians

"Cohodas infuses every scene with electrifying detail and penetrating insights into Simone's struggles as an African American musician of phenomenal talent and exalted ambition. . . . The result is a wrenching story of how racism can undermine even the most ascendant life, and a dramatic portrait of an uncompromising, audacious, and beleaguered musical genius of conscience." -- Booklist

"If you believe a singer's job is to sound pretty, you will have no use for Nina Simone. . . . And, as this even-handed biography makes clear, she certainly would have had no use for you." -- Washington Post Book World

"Offers many rich insights into [Simone's] conflicted emotional world."--CHOICE

"Simone's complex personality -- arrogance and brilliance in equal measure -- receives a long-overdue elaboration." -- Publishers Weekly

"Simone's life story is peculiar, beautiful, sometimes off-key and off-color but deeply, disturbingly dramatic. . . . Nadine Cohodas reinscribes into the historical record the musical contributions of a woman with prodigious gifts and sometimes unusual taste." -- Los Angeles Times

"The most comprehensive and thoughtfully researched biography on Simone to date." -- Women's Review of Books

"This biography is a reminder of the many performers, not generally thought of as Appalachian, who have roots in this region." -- Now & Then

"Princess Noire, which includes photographs, an index and a bibliography, leaves the reader wanting even more."--All About Jazz

About the Author

Nadine Cohodas is the author of, among other books, Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington.