Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews November 28, 2024 November 21, 2024
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
We're sorry, we could not create your account. SparkNotes PLUS is not available in your country. See what countries we’re in.
There was an error creating your account. Please check your payment details and try again.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Controversy
Bessie Smith's funeral was scheduled for October 4, 1937, in a small funeral home in Philadelphia. However, the outpouring of grief was so great that her wake was moved to O.V. Catto Elks Lodge, where ten thousand mourners filed past her coffin on October 3. Smith's funeral was a lavish affair. Seven thousand admirers stood outside the Lodge on 21st and Christian Streets, and watched as her gold-trimmed, velvet-lined coffin was carried out and placed in a hearse for interment in Mount Lawn Cemetery. For all the elegance and splendor in which Smith was remembered at her funeral, she went without a headstone for nearly thirty-five years.
Jack Gee collected all the money that was due to Smith for the sales of her records. Gee refused to buy his ex-wife a headstone, and her family, for unknown reasons, did too. In 1948, Smith's friends held a Bessie Smith Memorial Concert in New York to raise funds for the headstone. The concert was a success, but Gee pocketed the proceeds and disappeared.
In 1959, playwright Edward Albee wrote a play called "The Death of Bessie Smith." Albee had been so moved and so outraged by Smith's death that he'd written a play recreating the night of Smith's death. The play premiered in West Berlin in 1960.
In 1970, singer Janis Joplin–who considered Smith a great influence on her own music–and Juanita Green, an old employee of the Smith family's and the president of the North Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, pitched in to buy Smith a proper headstone. The epitaph they chose reads: "The Greatest Blues Singer in the World Will Never Stop Singing."
A number of significant and highly successful musicians of various genres claim Bessie Smith as an influence. Billie Holiday considered Bessie Smith a kind of teacher through her records. Though Holiday's voice did not have the same kind of power as Smith's, Holiday's musical phrasing and interpretation find parallels in Bessie's innovations. Frank Sinatra considered Bessie Smith an early blues genius, and though his sound was much more polished than Bessie's, he found inspiration in the emotional undercurrents of her versions of many standards. Janis Joplin identified so strongly with Bessie Smith that she sometimes told friends that she felt she was Bessie Smith reincarnated. Her rasping, guttural voice and her tendency to shout are all throwbacks to Bessie Smith. The unabashed sexuality of Joplin's singing, too, can be credited to Bessie Smith's influence.
That same year, Columbia reissued Bessie Smith's complete output on five double albums. The collection won two Grammy awards. She was inducted into the Rock- and-Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and, in 1992, the United States Postal Service honored her with a stamp.
Please wait while we process your payment