A host of people deserve thanks for their help in this years-long project. First among them are Peter Guralnick and Charlie McGovern. Peter encouraged me to write about Nina Simone, and throughout he has offered boundless support and wisdom, not only about the task of writing but about life, too. The same is true for Charlie, who listened, advised, prodded, and cajoled with a comforting and calming spirit. Their help and friendship, like the credit-card commercial, is priceless. I am and will be forever grateful.
John Irvin Waymon, Nina’s oldest brother, and his wife Carolle; Carrol Waymon, another older brother; and Dorothy Waymon Simmons, Nina’s older sister, provided invaluable information about the family’s early life in Tryon, North Carolina. Sam Waymon, Nina’s younger brother, fellow musician, and onetime manager, provided illuminating stories about their time together making music. Thanks, too, to Frances Waymon Fox, Nina’s younger sister, for her insights about particular moments in Nina’s life.
I appreciate having Nina’s voice through her autobiography, written with Stephen Cleary, I Put a Spell on You, and through the remembrances of Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan in Nina Simone: Break Down & Let It All Out.
For the Tryon years, I received wonderful help from Kipp Mclntyre, Mark Pumphrey, Cynthia Nanney, the late Edney Whiteside, the late Artie Hamilton, Holland Brady, Fred and Ulysses Counts, Beryl Hannon Dade, Garland Goodwin, Ruth Hannon Hamilton, David Johnson, Tom Moore, Joan Nash, James Payne, Blanche Lyles Solomon, and Crys Ambrust, creator of the website ninasimoneproject.org. Thanks, too, to the women who were classmates of Nina’s—then Eunice Waymon—at the Allen School in Asheville: Patricia Carson Caple, Christine Ivey Jowers, Cordelia Pedew Chambers, and Willie Mae Gaston Ferguson, and one of their teachers, Ruth Walther.
Chris White, one of Nina’s first bass players, set me on the path to many of the other musicians who played or worked with Nina either onstage or in the studio. My thanks to them, too: Michael Alago, Lisle Atkinson, John Beal, Warren Benbow, Jimmy Bond, the late Patti Bown, Leopoldo Fleming, Bobby Hamilton, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Chuck Israels, Tony Jones, Jimmy Madison, Dave Matthews, Hannibal Means, Montego Joe, the late Odetta, Horace Ott, Gene Perla, Bernard Purdie, Nadi Qamar, Ben Riley, Paul Robinson, Warren Smith, Rudy Stevenson, and Henry Young. Special thanks to Henry’s wife Yvonne for the hospitality in Vancouver and for keeping track of all the photos, documents, and e-mails when Henry, always patient, answered my questions.
My thanks also to Vivian Bailey, Onameega Doris Bluitt, Roscoe Dellums, the late Art D’Lugoff, Bernard Gotfryd, Irv Greenbaum, Eric Hanson, Wade Henderson, Tad Hershorn, Kenny Hill, Lester Hyman, Darryl and Douglas Jeffries, Judy Gail Krasnow, Alan Mitchell Nadel, Alan Naftalis, Peter Rodis, Elliot Sagor, Norm Schneider, Bill Smith, Chuck Stewart, Fred Taylor, George Wein, Alfred Wertheimer, Hollie West, and Gus Wildi, who first put Nina on vinyl on his Bethlehem label. Additional thanks to the late Charles Walton, still an inspiration, Brigitta Peterhans, Tim Samuelson, David Sharpe, and John Vinci for the Chicago stories.
Gerrit DeBruin provided illuminating stories, as did Nina’s other European friends, Raymond Gonzalez, and Roland Griville. Thanks, too, to Roberto Meglioli and Maria Carneglia, and to Juan Yriart, Javier Collados, and Juanita Bougere.
This project could not have been completed without the help of many librarians and archivists around the country. My thanks and appreciation to all of them. At the Library of Congress: Jerome Brooks, Bryan Cornell, Liz Faison, Karen Fishman, Rosemary Hane, Jan McKee, Karen Moses, Sam Perryman, Mark Sweeney, Travis Westly, and to Regina Frackowiak, who went the extra mile by contacting a library in Warsaw for coverage of Nina’s last concert and then translating two articles—dziekuje. Additional thanks to: Jeni Dahmus at Juilliard; Jennifer Rycerz, Sally Grant Branca, and Elizabeth Walker at the Curtis Institute of Music; Zoe Rhine, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, North Carolina; Gino Francesconi, Rob Hudson, and Kathleen Sabogil of the Carnegie Hall archives; Karen Nangle—Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Donna Humphrey of the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Historical Society; Monica Smith, Cairo, Illinois, Public Library; Diana Peterson at Haverford College; Barbara Allier at Brooklyn College; Wei-jie Cui at the Burlington County, New Jersey, library; John Slate, city archivist for the Dallas Municipal Archives; Lylian Morcos, WNET; Jane Klain at the Paley Center for Media; Jonathan Grant at Morehouse College in Atlanta; Christy Venham, West Virginia University Libraries; Becky Nesbitt, Benedum Library, Salem International University; Eleanor Krell and Lisa Greenhouse, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Maryland; Toni Tucker, Illinois State University; Patricia Woodard, Hunter College library; Patricia Allen and Diane Permattei at Amherst College; Octavio Olvera and Angela Riggio, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA; JoAnne El Bashir, Moorland Springarn Research Center, Howard University; Ann Marie Wieland, Venechor Boyd, and Elmer Turner at the Cleveland Public Library; the library staff at the Illinois Institute of Technology; the staff at the Columbus, Ohio, public library; and the staff at the Temple University Urban Archives, whose collection was instrumental in understanding the early days of Nina’s career.
To my translators: David Kaufman, merci; Catherine Re and Luca Favaro, grazie; Iliana Aguilar, gracias; James Huckenpahler, danke; and Leonie van Raadshoove and Benno Groeneveld, dank u.
Terrific help tracking down articles and court documents came from Emily Kelly, Susan Engstrom, and Jennifer Sepic. Additional thanks to Tom Tierney at the Sony-BMG archives.
My thanks to Wil Haygood and Richard Seidel for reading the manuscript, and to Michael Lydon, who was both blunt and right.
Flip Brophy, my agent, has represented me for twenty years and five books, and I renew my thanks for making each of these challenging adventures possible. At Pantheon, thanks to Deb Garrison, my editor, who was willing to do this a second time. Once again she provided encouragement at every turn and the astute observations and suggestions so valuable in bringing focus to a project. The very capable Caroline Zancan managed all the moving parts with impressive skill. Thanks also to the production team: Carol Carson, for designing a cover, as she did for the Dinah Washington book, that caught the essence of the story I have sought to tell; Iris Weinstein, whose design has the elegance Nina would surely have liked; managing editor Altie Karper; production editor Kathleen Fridella; production manager Marci Lewis; permissions administrator Caryn Burtt; and Holly Webber, the copy editor, who provided many graceful suggestions in her detailed read.
A final nod from the heart to Sylvia Cohodas, Howard Cohodas, and the late Arnold Cohodas.