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Josephine Baker Published Her Memoir in the 1940s. Now, It Arrives in the U.S. for the First Time

Josephine Baker, trailblazing performer and civil rights activist, published her memoir, 'Fearless and Free,' in 1949. Now, the book is being released in the United States for the first time on Feb 4.

Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race, wrote the foreword to Fearless and Free, and tells PEOPLE that she saw Baker’s lasting impact on her adopted city up close while visiting Paris herself. The memoir also recounts memories of her husband, the French composer Jo Bouillon who she divorced in 1961, and the artists with whom she was acquainted, like the writer Colette and opera singer Edith Piaf. "Bonzo [the Great Dane] lying on the hotel room rug with a mouse cleaning itself on the end of his nose; Gugusse [the marmoset] on a visit to the wardrobe; Glouglou [the monkey] in the curtains, climbing with his little hands ...

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