Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society And An Early Cry For Civil Rights. David Margolick

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      Acknowledgments

      THIS BOOK was not only a labor of love, but labor-intensive, too. I have many debts to acknowledge.

      First, there are the eyewitnesses: the people who experienced “Strange Fruit” firsthand, and shared their thoughts with me: Hey wood Hale Broun, Holmes “Daddy-O” Daylie, Ahmet Ertegun, Milt Gabler, Norman Granz, Lena Horne, Bernard and Honey Kassoy, Albert Murray, Max Roach, Ned Rorem, Pete Seeger, Artie Shaw, Studs Terkel, Bobby Tucker, Mal Waldron, and George Wein. There are those who've refreshed and perpetuated the song: Tori Amos, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Abbey Lincoln, Eartha Kitt, Cassandra Wilson.

      Many other people assisted me. Apart from those quoted in the text, whose contributions are clearly apparent, these include Bob Adams, Michael Anderson, George Avakian, Charlie Bourgeois, Oscar Brand, Paul Buehl, Donald Clarke, Ron Cohen, Art D'Lugoff, William Dufty, Bill Ferris, Henry Foner, Leah Garchik, Marvin Gettleman, Farah Jasmine Griffin, John Jeremy, Ken Maley, Gertrude Margolick, David Ostwald, Carrie Rickey, Mark Satlov, Don Shirley, Chuck Stone, Elijah Wald, Jay Weston, Josh White, Jr., DouglasYeager, and Sidney Zion. My thanks to them all.

      Two of the musicians I interviewed—Harry “Sweets” Edison and Johnny Williams—died before this book was completed, and I want to pay special tribute to them, as well as to the late Jack Millar, founder and guiding light of the Billie Holiday Circle, who was unfailingly courteous to me. The book was greatly enhanced by the help and encouragement of Abel Meeropol's two sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol. I also want to thank the many people who responded to my queries about “Strange Fruit,” recalling with great power and eloquence their associations with Billie Holiday, Josh White, and the song. It was a thrill to read their recollections and a privilege to include many of them in my book.

      I want also to thank the incomparably knowledgeable and generous Dan Morgenstern at the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University;Tom Bourke and George Bozewick of the (also incomparable) New York Public Library; Sean Noel at Boston University; Peter Filardo at the Tamiment Library at New York University; Ralph Elder of the University of Texas; and Deborah Gillaspie of the Chicago Jazz Archive. The archive of my alma mater, the New York Times, is another inspiring institution, and I want to thank Lou Ferrer there for his cheerful assistance.

      My editors at Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter and Doug Stumpf, were enthused about this project from the outset, and I am grateful to them. I am thankful, too, to Caroline Tiger, Carlo DeVito, Susan Oyama, Justin Loeber, Jennifer Worick, and the many other wonderful people at Running Press who encouraged me to revisit and expand upon my research, making it an even more rewarding experience for me.

      DAVID MARGOLICK

      NEWYORK, JANUARY 2000