1 piece.
Autograph Letter Signed. Holiday, Billie. Alderson, W. Virginia, August 5, 1947. 2 pp. 4to. Written & signed by Billie Holiday in pencil. To Mr. Joe Guy, County Prison, Philadelphia. With addressed envelope.
An intimate & affectionate letter written from prison while serving a sentence for possession of narcotics. Holiday expresses her gratitude for a letter & photograph recently received from Mr. Guy; she also expresses her concern for him & writes of her efforts to secure him probation. Elsewhere in the letter she expresses her remorse, "...I told her how sorry I was about all this trouble..."
The letter's recipient, Mr. Joe Guy - a journeyman jazz trumpet player, was Holiday's paramour & heroin-using parter, ca.1943-1947. The two were arrested together in 1947 & charged with possession of narcotics. Holiday was sentenced, before Guy's trial, to a year & a day. Expected to testify for the prosecution at Guy's trial in Sept. 1947, she instead averred that the narcotics found in her apartment were hers alone. Guy (actually the drugs' procurer) was released & disappeared from Holiday's life.