Biographies of james baldwin

James Baldwin: A Biography

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"The most revealing and subjectively penetrating assessment of Baldwin's life yet published." -- The New York Times Book Review. " The first Baldwin biography in which one can recognize the human features of this brilliant, troubled, principled, supremely courageous man." --Boston Globe James Baldwin was one of the great writers of the last century. In works that have become part of the American canon-- Go Tell It on a Mountain , Giovanni's Room , Another Country , The Fire Next Time , and The Evidence of Things Not Seen --he explored issues of race and racism in America, class distinction, and sexual difference. A gay, African American writer who was born in Harlem, he found the freedom to express himself living in exile in Paris. When he returned to America to cover the Civil Rights movement, he became an activist and controversial spokesman for the movement, writing books that became bestsellers and made him a celebrity, landing him on the cover of Time . In this biography, David Leeming creates an intimate portrait of a complex, troubled, driven, and brilliant man. He plumbs every aspect of Baldwin's life: his relationships with the unknown and the famous, including painter Beauford Delaney, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and childhood friend Richard Avedon; his expatriate years in France and Turkey; his gift for compassion and love; the public pressures that overwhelmed his quest for happiness, and his passionate battle for black identity, racial justice, and to "end the racial nightmare and achieve our country."

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The biography of one of the world's most influential African-American writers

'A scrupulous biography' Publishers Weekly

'Fresh, incisive, and uplifting' Kirkus

'If you want to know the real Baldwin, this is the book to read' Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk

James Baldwin is an icon of liberation who created some of the most important literary works of his time, including the novels Go Tell It on the Mountain and If Beale Street Could Talk. Here, Bill V. Mullen celebrates the life of the great African-American writer and activist.

As a lifelong anti-imperialist, black queer advocate, and feminist, James Baldwin was a passionate chronicler of the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, the US war against Vietnam, the Palestinian liberation struggle, and the rise of LGBTQ+ rights.

Mullen pays homage to Baldwin's truly radical approach to his life, writing and activism. Constantly in struggle for an anti-racist, emancipated world, Baldwin's philosophy and politics were ahead of their time, predicting many of today's movements such as Black Lives Matter.

Bill V. Mullen is Professor of American Studies at Purdue University. He is the author of James Baldwin: Living in Fire and UnAmerican: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Century of World Revolution, amongst other books.

'A scrupulous biography'

- Publishers Weekly

'A fresh, incisive, and uplifting biography'

- Kirkus

'Finally, the James Baldwin we've been waiting for: the revolutionary, fierce internationalist, queer theorist, anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, and perhaps the most dangerous thinker of the 20th century. If you want to know the real Baldwin, this is the book to read'

- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of 'Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original'

'A clear, incisive writer, Mullen succeeds with providing a fresh perspective on an author he so obviously admires. Recommended for readers seeking a broader understanding of the opini

In , Baldwin met Richard Wright, who was the famous African American male writer at the time, and whose work spoke to his sensibility. In time, Wright would also become his mentor, for Baldwin appreciated Wright’s strong opinions about race in America, and he also greatly valued their intellectual exchanges. Wright helped Baldwin to obtain a fellowship to write his first novel, which enabled him to leave for Paris in , where the older writer had relocated a few years earlier. However, while in France, the two were often at odds about the ways in which they approached race in their writings. Baldwin wrote three essays explicating his critique of Wright’s “protest art” in the novel Native Son (); their disagreement eventually led to the demise of their friendship, which Baldwin regretted after Wright’s death in

In , at age twenty-four, Baldwin left the United States to live in Paris, France, as he could not tolerate the racial and sexual discrimination he experienced daily. As Kendall Thomas, professor of law and critical race studies at Columbia University, explains, Baldwin left his country because of racism, and Harlem because of homophobia—two aspects of his identity that made him a frequent target of beatings by local youth and the police. When asked about his departure, Baldwin explained in a The Paris Review interview from , “My luck was running out. I was going to go to jail, I was going to kill somebody or be killed.” In Paris, Baldwin began to interact with other writers. He reconnected with Richard Wright, and for the first time, he met Maya Angelou, with whom he maintained a close relationship until the end of his life.

Baldwin would spend the next forty years abroad, where he wrote and published most of his works. Between and he lived in France and traveled in Europe, and from to , Baldwin lived for long periods in Istanbul and visited many other places in Turkey. The violence and assassinations of black leaders in the United States during the p

Summary: James Baldwin&#;s chosen biographer, his friend and sometimes secretary and translator David Leeming.

After reading my last Baldwin book, I knew I needed to read a complete biography before reading more of Baldwin&#;s writing. Previously, I have read three novels (Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni&#;s Room, and If Beale Street Could Talk) and three essay collections (The Fire Next Time, Notes of a Native Son, and No Name on the Street). In addition to those, I have read three books about Baldwin that had biographical aspects but were not primarily a biography, Begin Again by Eddie Glaude, What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson, and James Baldwin and the s by Joseph Vogel.

David Leeming was James Baldwin&#;s friend and his hand-chosen biographer. This biography was originally published in , nine years after Baldwin&#;s death. Leeming first met Baldwin in Instanbul, where Leeming was a professor and Baldwin was staying with a friend trying to write. One of the constant refrains of this biography is that Baldwin needed people around him, but he couldn&#;t write with people around him. So there was a tension between his ability to draw people to him and his need to get away from those people so that he could write, in part because of the costs of having those people around him.

Leeming started working for Baldwin as a secretary and continued working for him in various capacities for years. The close friendship and historical memory that Leeming brings to the biography is a real strength because Leeming was actually in the room for many events of the book, including his last days. At the same time, there is always a bit of a mistrust about biographers that are too close to their subject. The concern is about how that relationship distorts their perceptions. Leeming does not seem to have a problem allowing Baldwin to be a flawed individual. Baldwin for all of his brilliance was flawed. And Leeming had access to all of Balwin&#;s papers, as well a

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