If Art Pepper’s Straight Life is one of the seminal jazz autobiographies, essential for its portrait of the postwar West Coast scene and its pitiless portrayal of the addict’s lifestyle ART: Why I Stuck with a Junkie Jazzman, describes Laurie Pepper’s marriage to the deeply troubled, drug-addicted, madly gifted artist.

"That marriage was the making of me," says Laurie. "Some people go to grad school or join the Marines. I married a genius who valued and inspired me and challenged me to use my gifts. We had a difficult, powerful partnership. I had to tell that story."

Read the whole fascinating story. Laurie's extremely well written truth comes shining through humor, affection, love, and loss, but most of all love.