LEADER 00000cam a2200385 i 4500 
001    sky308858524 
003    SKY 
005    20240307000000.0 
008    230830s2023    cauk   e      000 1 eng d 
010    2023902901 
020    9781647425401|q(paperback) 
020    1647425409|q(paperback) 
020    9781647425951|q(hardcover) 
020    1647425956|q(hardcover) 
040    JCX|beng|erda|cJCX|dJCX|dGL4|dDAD|dSKYRV 
092    |fF|aKASS 
100 1  Kass, Linda Stern,|eauthor. 
245 10 Bessie :|ba novel /|cLinda Kass. 
264  1 Berkeley, CA :|bShe Writes Press,|c2023. 
300    234 pages ;|c24 cm. 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent. 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia. 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier. 
500    Includes reader's guide. 
504    Includes discography (pages 227-231). 
520    "Just days after the close of World War II, Bess Myerson, 
       the daughter of poor Russian Jewish immigrants living in 
       the Bronx, is competing in the Miss America pageant. At 
       stake: a $5,000 scholarship. The tension and excitement in
       Atlantic City's Warner Theatre are palpable, especially 
       for traumatized Jews rooting for one of their own. So 
       begins Bessie. Drawing on biographical and historical 
       sources, Bessie reimagines the early life of Bess Myerson,
       who, in 1945 at age twenty-one, remarkably rises to become
       one of the most famous women in America. This intimate 
       fictional portrait reveals the transformation of the 
       nearly six-foot-tall, self-deprecating yet talented 
       preteen into an exemplar of beauty, a peripheral quality 
       in her world, where success is measured by intellectual 
       attainment. Yet it is the focus on her beauty, and the 
       secular world of pageantry, that she must choose to escape
       her roots and fulfill her fierce desire to achieve and 
       become someone for whom great things happen. Bessie is a 
       tender study of a bold young woman living at a precarious 
       moment in our cultural history as she searches for love 
       and acceptance, eager to make her mark on the world."--
       |cProvided by publisher. 
611 20 Miss America Pageant|vFiction. 
650  0 Immigrants|vFiction. 
650  0 Jews|zUnited States|vFiction. 
650  0 Russian American women|vFiction. 
651  0 Bronx (New York, N.Y.)|vFiction. 
655  0 Historical fiction.