Linda Lipnack Kuehl

Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 – February 6, 1978)[1] was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's life, but died before its completion.[2] Various other writers' biographies on Holiday have drawn upon Kuehl's material, as did the film Billie (2019), which is narrated by Kuehl's recorded interviews.[3] She worked as a high school teacher and free lance writer.[3]

Linda Lipnack Kuehl
Born
Linda Lipnack

(1940-01-24)January 24, 1940
New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 6, 1978(1978-02-06) (aged 38)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
OccupationArts journalist
Known forResearch on the life of Billie Holiday

Arts journalism career

Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978.[4]

She was a Jewish feminist[5] and a fan of Billie Holiday.[6] In 1971, she began plans for a biography of Holiday, who had died aged 44 in 1959.[3] She interviewed almost 200 people—friends, family members, band members, peers from 1930s Harlem, piano players, psychiatrists and a pimp—and was still finding people in 1978.[7][3][8] Her archive on Holiday included these interviews on 125 audio tapes[8] as well as "a long paper trail, including police files, transcripts of court cases, royalty statements, shopping lists, hospital records, private letters, muddled transcripts and fragments of unfinished chapters."[9] However, Kuehl did not complete the book.[3] In 1978 she was found dead on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk,[3][8][10] after attending a Count Basie concert.[11] "Police deemed it suicide, Kuehl having supposedly jumped from her hotel room, although there was no proof of this",[3] and her family believes she may have been murdered.[8]

Kuehl's research revealed that Holiday's addictions were "becoming a crutch for a life beset with violence, misogyny and racism."[2]

Legacy

Her archive passed to a private collector and was later used in other writers' biographies of Holiday.[3] The interviews were a major source for the text in Robert O'Meally's book of photographs Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (1991)[12] and around the same were used for the script for a Masters of American Music series documentary of the same name.[13] Some of Kuehl's material was used in Donald Clarke's 1994 biography, Wishing on the Moon[14] and her interviews were used in Julia Blackburn's 2005 biography With Billie: a New Look at the Unforgettable Lady Day.[11][14][15] Documentary director James Erskine bought the rights to Kuehl's tapes[3] and his subsequent film, Billie (2019), is "a journey through Holiday's life, narrated by the voices on those tapes",[3][14][16][17] including Kuehl's.

Personal life

Kuehl's parents were Sol and Ida Lipnack and she had a sister, Myra Luftman.[1]

References
  1. "Deaths (Published 1978)". The New York Times. 9 February 1978. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  2. "Billie documentary review – an oral history of Billie Holiday". City A.M. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  3. "Singer, activist, sex machine, addict: the troubled brilliance of Billie Holiday". The Guardian. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  4. "Linda Kuehl". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  5. O'Sullivan, Charlotte (13 November 2020). "Billie is a fanatical yet fascinating portrait of an immortal talent". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  6. "A gripping portrait: Billie reviewed". www.spectator.co.uk. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  7. "Billie — a powerful documentary about the life of the singer". www.ft.com. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  8. "Documentary Billie squanders its incendiary premise – review". The Independent. 13 November 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-06-14. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  9. Zwerin, Mike (15 June 2005). "Biography covers range of a vocalist (Published 2005)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  10. Maher, Kevin. "Billie review — a double tragedy of destruction and obsession". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  11. "Song, sex and stimulants". The Telegraph. 9 April 2005. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  12. Davis, Francis (25 September 1994). "One Scats, the Other Doesn't (Published 1994)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  13. "Billie Holiday". American Heritage. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  14. "Observer review: With Billie by Julia Blackburn". The Observer. 17 April 2005. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  15. "Billie review – a truer, historical spin on the great Billie Holiday". The Guardian. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  16. Leland, John (24 April 2005). "'With Billie': The Lady Sang Jazz Ballads (Published 2005)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  17. "Fine and mellow". www.spectator.co.uk. 7 May 2005. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
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