When you think about Billie Holiday, you probably think about her singing voice—its rare sincerity, the spectrum of emotions she could convey, her unique phrasing. You might also think about the trials she endured: a vulnerable young life in Baltimore, tumultuous relationships, addiction, FBI surveillance.
What you probably don’t think about is Holiday in the role of a big sister, a knowledgeable path-breaker for a younger woman—a guide who is not afraid to crack a joke, dish out know-how, and offer life advice. But that’s exactly who Billie Holiday was to an ambitious singer and showgirl named Marilyn L. Moore, as documented in 30 handwritten letters comprising a new collection at the Sheridan Libraries.
Over the course of two-plus years, from June 20, 1939 to August 19, 1941, Holiday sent Moore letters full of camaraderie, wisdom, and generosity. She offered to connect Moore to band leaders, record executives, and fellow musicians. She invited Moore to stay with her and her mother, Sadie, in New York. Holiday’s letters also reveal her awareness of racial politics and white privilege in the music business. For instance, in one letter, she advised Moore, who was white, to contact a band leader who was looking for a white female vocalist.
For Lawrence Jackson, Bloomberg Professor of History and English and Director of the Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts, these letters provide genuine new understanding of an artist whose life and career have become mythical. These letters will be “a real resource for students of twentieth-century American culture,” Jackson predicts, helping scholars to “reconstruct Holiday’s voice and inner life with new insight” and giving them “the opportunity to regard Holiday’s extraordinary human generosity and selfless goodwill—the cornerstone of any performer’s true artistry.” Given that the letters were written while Holiday was in her 20s, he notes that they also “edge us closer to her early years,” not too long after she’d left Baltimore for New York—reminding us of Baltimore’s often overlooked but crucial contributions to the evolution of jazz, a history that is central to the Billie Holiday Center’s mission.
“While Billie Holiday is one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century, there are aspects of her life, her relationships, and her personal perspectives that remain a mystery,” says Raynetta Wiggins-Jackson, Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for Africana Collections in the Krieger School. “These letters provide researchers with a rare opportunity to explore Holiday’s intimate conversations as a younger artist—just as she is coming into her own as a jazz star . . . we get a sense of her priorities, her connections to other artists, her ideas about her own artistry.” The letters also provide “a glimpse of the challenges that women artists faced as they attempted to forge lives on their own terms in the mid-twentieth century.” Wiggins-Jackson believes the collection will aid scholars and students working in and across multiple disciplines, like African American history, women and gender studies, and popular music history.
An additional advantage of the new acquisition is that it complements several other archival collections already in the holdings of the Sheridan Libraries, according to Gabrielle Dean, William Kurrelmeyer Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. “We’re very proud to be the stewards of several significant sets of jazz-related materials with local associations,” she says. “When researchers and students come to examine these letters, they’ll also have access to the Linda Kuehl Collection of Billie Holiday Materials and a collection of Billie Holiday ephemera, photographs, and souvenirs related to her later career and legacy”—a wide array of materials that can aid multiple avenues of study. Given Holiday’s youthful connections to Baltimore, Dean adds, “It’s so important that we are able to provide access to this amazing collection right here in the city. Through our collaboration with the Billie Holiday Center, we also have the ability to make this material available to broad audiences through public programs.” Another archival collection related to local jazz legend Ethel Ennis and journalist Earl Arnett will be made public later this year.
The letters are full of distinctive details—and a few mysteries, says Kristen Diehl, Processing Archivist for the Sheridan Libraries, who prepared the new collection for public access. Diehl was concerned that the chronology of the letters be properly preserved, so that researchers can accurately connect letter dates to events in Holiday’s life and beyond. Organizing them also gave her the opportunity to read and ponder. “One of my favorite quotes is from the letter dated November 21, 1939. Billie says she has to lose 15 pounds to be in a show, but really loves her mother’s cooking. She writes Moore, ‘I guess I will have to suffer for my art.’”
“It was a joy to work on this collection,” Diehl adds. “I was touched by Billie Holiday’s encouragement and generosity to Marilyn Moore,” an unknown newcomer who had no claim on her and wasn’t in the position to help Holiday in return. But the letters also raise one big question. “How did Marilyn and Billie first get in touch? That’s something I really want to know. Was it through a mutual acquaintance? Or did Marilyn simply reach out as a fan and aspiring vocalist? The collection does not include Marilyn’s letters to Billie. I look forward to learning from researchers as they use the collection, and welcome new insights that will enhance our description of the materials.”
The Sheridan Libraries Inclusive Collections Fund supports the continued acquisition, preservation, processing, and sharing of rare and archival materials that document the experiences and histories of African American, LGBTQ+, immigrant, and other marginalized communities, with a special interest in groups that are local to Baltimore. To help continue this work, please consider making a gift to the Sheridan Libraries Inclusive Collections Fund.