Two icons: Billie Holiday and William Faulkner, photographed in 1956 by Moneta Sleet Jr. According to Donald Clarke’s 2009 biography on Ms. Holiday, she was initially wary about meeting Mr. Faulkner because he was a Southerner. She called her friend, the singer Thelma Carpenter (best known in later years as “Miss One” from “The Wiz” and asked about him. Ms. Carpenter said that the meeting was likely set up by Bill Dufty, her ghostwriter for “Lady Sings the Blues” and that the singer and the writer “got along beautifully… he understood her perfectly.” Photo: Moneta Sleet Jr./Ebony/Art.com.