An outspoken icon across at least four generations, Kitt was a famous American singer, actress, and voice actress. By the 1950’s she had six top 30 hits and was famed for unique vocals. She was also an activist whose anti-war conversation at The White House in 1968 damaged her career. Kitt was blacklisted by the CIA which compiled a dossier on her sex life, but continued an outspoken life, founding charities and speaking up for LGBT rights.

Kitt, as glamorous diva and tv’s Catwoman, was a beloved gay icon in part for overcoming her traumatic early life. Raised in rural South Carolina, Thursday’s Child is the story of Kitt’s difficult childhood years and first rise to fame in the 1940’s. It was published in the UK in 1957 and was held and signed by the legend herself. Ebony magazine reported Kitt wrote her memoirs without a ghost writer.

London: Cassell & Company, 1957. First British edition. 21 x 15 x 3. 248 pages. Hardback. Octavo. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered gilt at spine. Slight lean at spine, else clean and bright. Very good in slightly chipped jacket, edgeworn at spine. Signed at the title page.