Description: The jazz pianist Billy Tipton was born in Oklahoma City as Dorothy Tipton, but almost nobody knew the truth until the day he died. This jazz era biography evokes the rich, popular-music history of the Great Depression and reads like a detective story. 60 photos.
Brief description: Diane Wood Middlebrook is the author of several volumes of poetry and criticism as well as the prizewinning bestseller Anne Sexton: A Biography. The recipient of many fellowships and awards, she is a professor emeritus at Stanford University, where she has also served as the director of the center for research on women.
Review Quotes:
"Diane Middlebrook is now writing the life of Billy Tipton . . . It should be the paradigmatic biography of our time." Newsweek