num_pages: 532
description: Twenty years of research and thousands of interviews by the man she called her son have finally revealed the shocking truth about Josephine Baker. Born in poverty in St. Louis, the uninhibited chorus girl became the sensation of Europe and this century's first black sex symbol. A heroine of the French resistance in World War II, she entranced figures as diverse as de Gaulle, Tito, Castro, Princess Grace, two popes, and Martin Luther King. But as one critic put it, "She was also a monster who made Joan Crawford look like the Virgin Mary."She was the self-proclaimed Universal Mother who adopted children from many countries and the expatriate who was erratic about the civil rights movement. She hated being black and never forgave white people for what they had done to her race.Her affairs with both men and women numbered in the thousands and she was adored by millions but, unable to control her enormous ambition, she wrecked her career and lost her fortune.
language: English
title: Josephine: The Josephine Baker Story
titlecomplete: Josephine: The Josephine Baker Story
characters: Josephine Baker
genres: Historical, Biography, France, Music, Nonfiction, Womens, Feminism, Biography Memoir, History, African American
ratings_count: 309
publisher: Adams Publishing