Who wrote a biography of the jazz musician that lived his adult life as a man, but was assigned female at birth?
Diane Middlebrook Diane Helen Wood Middlebrook (April 16, 1939 – December 15, 2007) was an American biographer, poet, and teacher. She taught feminist studies for many years at Stanford University. She is best known for critically acclaimed biographies of poets Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath (along with Plath's husband Ted Hughes), and jazz musician Billy Tipton. Middlebrook was preparing a biography of the Roman poet Ovid, to be published in 2008. Her death brought that project to a close.
Arnett Cobb Arnett Cleophus Cobb (August 10, 1918 – March 24, 1989) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, sometimes known as the "Wild Man of the Tenor Sax" because of his uninhibited stomping style. Cobb wrote the words and music for the jazz standard "Smooth Sailing" (1951), which Ella Fitzgerald recorded for Decca on her album "Lullabies of Birdland".