The Ballad of Blind Tom: America's Lost Musical Genius - Hardcover

OConnell, Deidre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0715638378 ISBN 13: 9780715638378

Publisher: Duckworth & Co, 2009

Synopsis

Born into slavery in Georgia, Tom Wiggins died an international celebrity in New York in 1908. His life was one of the most bizarre and moving episodes in American history. Blind and presumably autistic - and so unable to work with the other slaves - Tom was left to his own devices. He was mesmerized by the music of his owner's young daughters, and by the time he was four Tom was playing tunes on the piano. Eventually freed from slavery, Blind Tom toured the country and the world, playing on one occasion for huge crowds and private audiences, for celebrities and royalty - and dazzling audiences everywhere. Part genius and part novelty act, Blind Tom embodied contradictions - a star and a freak, freed from slavery but still the property of his white guardian. His life grants us a prism through which we can see into the culture of celebrity and racism at the turn of the twentieth century. In this rollicking, heartrending, and insightful book, O'Connell takes us through the life (and four separate deaths) of Blind Tom Wiggins, restoring to the modern reader this unusual yet quintessentially American life.

About this title

About the Author

Deirdre O'Connell has lived in Australia, Britain and the United States. Having made documentaries for the Jimi Hendrix Estate and United Nations Environment Program, she now works in news at SBS Australia and in community cultural development.

Edition details

• Publisher: Duckworth & Co
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0715638378
• ISBN 13: 9780715638378
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272