James Baldwin
James Baldwin, (b. Aug. 2, 1924, New
York City—d. Dec. 1, 1987, Saint-Paul,
Fr.), American essayist, novelist, and
playwright whose eloquence and passion
on the subject of race in America made
him an important voice, particularly in
the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the
United States and, later, through much
of western Europe.
The eldest of nine children, he grew up
in poverty in the black ghetto of Harlem
in New York City. From 14 to 16 he was
active during out-of-school hours as a
preacher in a small revivalist church, a
period he wrote about in his
semiautobiographical first and finest
novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain
(1953), and in his play about a woman
evangelist, The Amen Corner (performed
in New York City, 1965).
After graduation from high school, he
began a restless period of ill-paid
jobs, self-study, and literary
apprenticeship in Greenwich Village, the
bohemian quarter of New York City. He
left in 1948 for Paris, where he lived
for the next eight years. (In later
years, from 1969, he became a
self-styled “transatlantic commuter,”
living alternatively in the south of
France and in New York and New England.)
His second novel, Giovanni’s Room
(1956), deals with the white world and
concerns an American in Paris torn
between his love for a man and his love
for a woman. Between the two novels came
a collection of essays, Notes of a
Native Son (1955).
In 1957 he returned to the United States
and became an active participant in the
civil-rights struggle that swept the
nation. His book of essays, Nobody Knows
My Name (1961), explores black–white
relations in the United States. This
theme also was central to his novel
Another Country (1962), which examines
sexual as well as racial issues.
The New Yorker magazine gave over almost
all of its Nov. 17, 1962, issue to a
long article by Baldwin on the Black
Muslim separatist movement and other
aspects of the civil-rights struggle.
The article became a best-seller in book
form as The Fire Next Time (1963). His
bitter play about racist oppression,
Blues for Mister Charlie (“Mister
Charlie” being a black term for a white
man), played on Broadway to mixed
reviews in 1964.
Though Baldwin continued to write until
his death—publishing works including
Going to Meet the Man (1965), a
collection of short stories; and the
novels Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been
Gone (1968), If Beale Street Could Talk
(1974), and Just Above My Head (1979);
and The Price of the Ticket (1985), a
collection of autobiographical
writings—none of his later works
achieved the popular and critical
success of his early work.
