Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter's Love Story in Black and White

"This is a memoir by Kitt Shapiro, the daughter of Eartha Kitt, the great jazz musician and singer. She’s writing about her life with her mother, with whom she spent a lot of time. In her career, Earth Kitt was not allowed in many places in America. She was more welcome abroad, so she performed a lot in Europe—but she didn’t want to leave her daughter behind. So Kitt travelled with Eartha as a child, then as a young person, and eventually became her manager. The memoir doesn’t gloss over the hard times, and hard things that happened in Eartha’s career and in her relationship with Kitt—but it is also extremely loving and warm. It’s a powerful story that really makes you appreciate Eartha and her career and the challenges she faced. It was a very hard time to be a black musician in the world, and yet she achieved such fame. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Kitt Shapiro is not reading the memoir herself. Sometimes authors do a really brilliant job with their memoirs, sometimes not. This one is read by Karen Chilton, who has just a beautiful, beautiful voice. It’s very rich, it reminds me a little bit of Eartha Kitt’s very distinctive voice. We have an interview with Karen Chilton, and she has a very interesting connection with this memoir. She met Eartha Kitt once, so she is reading the biography of someone that she had met. She is also the author of two biographies of jazz musicians and narrated Billie Holiday’s biography. So the world of jazz is something that she knows. Her connection with Eartha & Kitt is emotionally very strong and it’s a great listen."