New York, NY: Tiny Reparations | Penguin Random House (February 4, 2025)

Hardback.

New in dust jacket.

Published in the US for the first time, this is the memoir of the fabulous, rule-breaking, one-of-a-kind Josephine Baker, the iconic dancer, singer, spy, and Civil Rights activist.

Josephine Baker's autobiography is filled with her effervescent personality, and her voice rings as boldly today as when she first wrote to her admirers, “Stay young, lively, fearless, free, and go fast.”

After stealing the spotlight as a teenaged Broadway performer during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Josephine then took Paris by storm, dazzling audiences across the Roaring Twenties. In her famous banana skirt, she enraptured royalty and countless fans—Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso among them. She strolled the streets of Paris with her pet cheetah wearing a diamond collar. With her signature flapper bob and enthralling dance moves, she was one of the most recognizable women in the world.

During World War II, Josephine became a spy for the French Résistance. Her celebrity worked as her cover, as she hid spies in her entourage and secret messages in her costumes as she traveled. She later joined the Civil Rights movement in the US, boycotting segregated concert venues, and speaking at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

First published in France in 1949, her memoir will now finally be published in English. At last we can hear Josephine in her own voice: charming, passionate, and brave. Her words are thrilling and intimate, like she’s talking with her friends over after-show drinks in her dressing room. Through her own telling, we come to know a woman who danced to the top of the world and left her unforgettable mark on it.

Josephine Baker (1906 - 1975) was a globally famous dancer and singer, and the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture. She served as a spy for the French Résistance, and was a Civil Rights activist who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. In 2021 Baker became the first Black woman to enter France’s Panthéon.