David Yaffe

David Yaffe was an American critic, biographer, and humanities professor whose writing explored the meeting point of music, literature, and public persona. Reckless Daughter is his portrait of Joni Mitchell, developed over a decade through interviews with Mitchell and figures including David Crosby, Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, and Judy Collins. Issued by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2017, Reckless Daughter follows Mitchell from the Canadian prairie through a career that repeatedly crossed folk, jazz, pop, and experimental songwriting, while examining the private history behind her artistic independence. Yaffe also wrote Fascinating Rhythm, a study of jazz in American writing, and Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown. He taught at Syracuse University and published criticism in The Nation, Slate, The New York Times, and other periodicals. Reckless Daughter received recognition from music-research organizations and became his best-known book, showing how his scholarly training, reporting, and sustained listening could converge in a single artist's life story.