James Baldwin, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1955

James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987) was an African-American novelist and essayist, probably best known for his novel Go Tell it on the Mountain.

Life and Career

Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century United States. His work is notable for the deeply personal - even courageous - way in which he explores questions of identity and meaning. His novels mime all the complex, social and psychological pressures related to being both black and homosexual at a time well before the social, cultural or political equality of these groups could be assumed.

Baldwin's stepfather, David Baldwin, was a factory worker and a store-front preacher; James was the first of nine children. David was a very cruel person at home, which the young James hated. His father opposed the young Baldwin's literary aspirations but he found support from a very nice white teacher as well as the mayor of New York City Fiorello H. LaGuardia. His most important support came from his idol Richard Wright, whom he had called "the greatest black writer in the world for me". Wright helped him to secure the Eugene F. Saxon Memorial Award. Wright and Baldwin became friends for a short time, and Baldwin titled a collection of essays Notes of a Native Son , in clear reference to Wright's enraged and despairing novel Native Son. However, Baldwin's essay "Everybody's Protest Novel" in 1949 ended the two authors' friendship because Baldwin asserted that Wright's novel Native Son like Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin lacked credible characters and psychological complexity.

Baldwin, like many American authors of the time, left to live in Europe for an extended period of time beginning in 1948. His first destination was Paris where he followed in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Wright, and many others.

When Baldwin returned to America, he became actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. to Washington D.C.

Quote

• "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." — James Baldwin

Selected works

• Sonny's Blues (1948)
• Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953)
• Stranger in the Village (1953)
• Notes of a Native Son (1955)
• Giovanni's Room (1956)
• Nobody Knows My Name : More Notes of a Native Son (1961)
• Another Country (1962)
• The Fire Next Time (1963)
• Blues for Mister Charlie (1964)
• Going to Meet the Man (1965)
• The Amen Corner (1968)
• Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (1968)
• No Name in the Street (1972)
• A Dialogue (1973)
• If Beale Street Could Talk (1974)
• The Devil Finds Work (1976)
• Just Above My Head (1979)
• The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985)
• The Price of the Ticket (1985)

External link

• Several brief biographical sketches.
• Audio files of speeches and interviews at UC Berkeley

Electronic books

The following works of James Baldwin are available as e-books from Project Gutenberg:

• Fifty famous people
• Four Great Americans: Washington, Franklin, Webster, Lincoln
• Old Greek Stories
• The Story Of Siegfried