Jump to content

James Baldwin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 72.11.54.147 (talk) at 02:19, 11 August 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the American writer. For other persons with the same name, see James Baldwin (disambiguation).
James Baldwin
Baldwin in 1982
Baldwin in 1982
BornJames Arthur Baldwin
(1924-08-02)August 2, 1924
Harlem, New York, U.S.
DiedDecember 1, 1987(1987-12-01) (aged 63)
Saint-Paul de Vence, France
OccupationWriter, Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Activist
NationalityAmerican
Genrefiction; non-fiction

James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and civil rights activist.

Baldwin's essays, for instance the booklength essay No Name in the Street, explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America, vis-à-vis their inevitable if unnameable tensions with personal identity, assumptions, uncertainties, yearning, and questing.[1]

His novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only blacks yet also of male homosexuals—depicting as well some internalized impediments to such individuals' quest for acceptance—namely in the novel Giovanni's Room, written well before the equality of homosexuals was widely espoused in America.[2] Baldwin is nonetheless best known for his novel ''Go Tell It on the Mountain''.

Early life

When Baldwin was an infant, his mother, Emma Berdis Joynes, moved to Harlem, New York, where she married a preacher, David Baldwin, who adopted James. The family was poor, and James and his adoptive father had a tumultuous relationship. James Baldwin attended the prestigious DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he worked on the school magazine together with Richard Avedon.[3]

Pentecostalism and Renunciation; Later Views on Religion

At the age of 14, Baldwin joined the Pentecostal Church and became a Pentecostal preacher. He said that the difficulties of African American life, as well as his abusive preacher stepfather, helped catapult him into the church. During a euphoric prayer meeting, Baldwin converted, and soon became junior minister at the Fireside Pentecostal Assembly. He even drew larger crowds than his father.

Upon reaching 17 years of age, Baldwin came to view Christianity as unbelievable. Years after leaving his church, he went to see Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam, and found his beliefs about "white devils" to be just as absurd. When the leader asked about his faith he replied:

"I left the church 20 years ago and haven't joined anything since."
"And what are you now?" Elijah asked.
"Now? I? Nothing?" Baldwin replied.

Baldwin's work remained heavily influenced by the Black church tradition, despite his rejection of organized religion.[4]

Greewich Village and The New School

When he was 17 years old, Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village, a New York City neighborhood, famous for its artists and writers. Here, he studied at The New School, finding an intellectual community within the university. Supporting himself with odd jobs, he began to write short stories, essays, and book reviews, many of which were later collected in the volume Notes of a Native Son (1955).

Baldwin's expatriation

James Baldwin, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1955

During his teenage years in Harlem and Greenwich Village, Baldwin began to recognize his own homosexuality. In 1948, disillusioned by American prejudice against blacks and homosexuals, Baldwin left the United States and departed to Paris, France. His flight was not just a desire to distance himself from American prejudice. He fled in order to see himself and his writing beyond an African American context and to be read as not "merely a Negro; or, even, merely a Negro writer".[5] Also, he left the United States desiring to come to terms with his sexual ambivalence and flee the hopelessness that many young African American men like himself succumbed to in New York.[6]

In Paris, Baldwin was soon involved in the cultural radicalism of the Left Bank. His work started to be published in literary anthologies, notably Zero,[7] which was edited by his friend Themistocles Hoetis and which had already published essays by Richard Wright.

He would live as an expatriate in France for most of his later life. He would also spend some time in Switzerland and Turkey.[8][9] During his life and after it, Baldwin would be seen not only as an influential African American writer but also as an influential exile writer, particularly because of his numerous experiences outside of the United States and the impact of these experiences on Baldwin's life and his writing.

Literary career

Baldwin with Shakespeare by Allan Warren

In 1953, Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, a semi-autobiographical bildungsroman, was published. Baldwin's first collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son appeared two years later. Baldwin continued to experiment with literary forms throughout his career, publishing poetry and plays as well as the fiction and essays for which he was known.

Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, stirred controversy when it was first published in 1956 due to its explicit homoerotic content.[10] Baldwin was again resisting labels with the publication of this work:[11] despite the reading public's expectations that he would publish works dealing with the African American experience, Giovanni's Room is exclusively about white characters.[11] Baldwin's next two novels, Another Country and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, are sprawling, experimental works[12] dealing with black and white characters and with heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual characters.[13] These novels struggle to contain the turbulence of the 1960s: they are saturated with a sense of violent unrest and outrage.

Baldwin's lengthy essay Down at the Cross (frequently called The Fire Next Time after the title of the book in which it was published)[14] similarly showed the seething discontent of the 1960s in novel form. The essay was originally published in two oversized issues of The New Yorker and landed Baldwin on the cover of Time magazine in 1963 while Baldwin was touring the South speaking about the restive Civil Rights movement. The essay talked about the uneasy relationship between Christianity and the burgeoning Black Muslim movement. Baldwin's next book-length essay, No Name in the Street, also discussed his own experience in the context of the later 1960s, specifically the assassinations of three of his personal friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baldwin's writings of the 1970s and 1980s have been largely overlooked by critics, though even these texts are beginning to receive attention.,[15] Eldridge Cleaver's vicious homophobic attack on Baldwin in Soul on Ice, and Baldwin's return to southern France contributed to the sense that he was not in touch with his readership. Always true to his own convictions rather than to the tastes of others, Baldwin continued to write what he wanted to write. His two novels written in the 1970s, If Beale Street Could Talk and Just Above My Head, placed a strong emphasis on the importance of black families, and he concluded his career by publishing a volume of poetry, Jimmy's Blues, as well as another book-length essay, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, which was an extended meditation inspired by the Atlanta Child Murders of the early 1980s.

Social and political activism

After his return to the United States from France and a subsequent trip to the South in 1962, Baldwin aligned himself more closely with the ideals of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1963 he conducted a lecture tour of the South for CORE, traveling to locations like Durham and Greensboro, North Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana. During the tour, he lectured to students, white liberals, and anyone else listening about his racial ideology, an ideological position between the "muscular approach" of Malcolm X and the nonviolent program of Martin Luther King Jr..[16]

At this time, Baldwin threw himself into the civil rights movement. In 1963, along with prominent figures like Lorraine Hansberry and Harry Belafonte and other civil rights figures, Baldwin met with then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to discuss the moral implications of the civil rights movement. Although most of the attendees of this meeting left feeling "devastated," the meeting was an important one in voicing the concerns of the civil rights movement and it provided exposure of the civil rights issue not just as a political issue but also as a moral issue.[17] Baldwin also made a prominent appearance at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963, also with Belafonte, as well as with long time friends Sidney Poitier and Marlon Brando.[18]

In 1968, Baldwin signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[19]

Inspiration and relationships

Richard Wright (1908-1960) photographed in 1939 by Carl Van Vechten

One source of support came from an admired older writer Richard Wright, whom he called "the greatest black writer in the world". Wright and Baldwin became friends for a short time and Wright helped him to secure the Eugene F. Saxon Memorial Award. Baldwin titled a collection of essays Notes of a Native Son, in clear reference to Wright's novel Native Son. However, Baldwin's 1949 essay "Everybody's Protest Novel" ended the two authors' friendship[20] because Baldwin asserted that Wright's novel Native Son, like Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, lacked credible characters and psychological complexity. However, during an interview with Julius Lester,[21] Baldwin explained that his adoration for Wright remained: "I knew Richard and I loved him. I was not attacking him; I was trying to clarify something for myself".

In nineteen forty-nine he also met and fell in love with Lucien Happersberger. The man was seventeen years old, eight years younger than Baldwin, and the two became very close, until Happersberger's marriage three years later, an event that left Baldwin devastated.[22] Lucien Happersberger died on August 21, 2010 in Switzerland.

Another major influence on Baldwin's life was the African-American painter Beauford Delaney. In The Price of the Ticket (1985), Baldwin describes Delaney as "the first living proof, for me, that a black man could be an artist. In a warmer time, a less blasphemous place, he would have been recognized as my teacher and I as his pupil. He became, for me, an example of courage and integrity, humility and passion. An absolute integrity: I saw him shaken many times and I lived to see him broken but I never saw him bow".

Baldwin was a close friend of the singer, pianist and civil rights activist Nina Simone. Together with Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry, Baldwin was responsible for making Simone aware of the civil rights movement that was forming at that time to fight racial inequality. He also provided her with literary references that influenced her later work.

Baldwin also had an influence on the work of the French painter Philippe Derome, whom he met in Paris at the beginning of the 1960s.

Maya Angelou called Baldwin her "friend and brother", and credited him for "setting the stage" for the writing of her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.[23]

Death

Early on December 1, 1987[24][25] (some sources say late on November 30[26][27]) Baldwin died from stomach cancer in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.[28][29] He was buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, near New York City.

Legacy

Baldwin's influence on other writers has been profound: Toni Morrison edited the Library of America two volume editions of Baldwin's fiction and essays, and a recent collection of critical essays links these two writers.

In 1987, Kevin Brown, a photo-journalist from Baltimore, founded the National James Baldwin Literary Society. The group organizes free public events celebrating Baldwin's life and legacy.

In 1992, Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, established the James Baldwin Scholars program, an urban outreach initiative, in honor of Baldwin, who taught at Hampshire in the early 1980s. The JBS Program provides talented students of color from underserved communities an opportunity to develop and improve the skills necessary for college success through coursework and tutorial support for one transitional year, after which Baldwin scholars may apply for full matriculation to Hampshire or any other four-year college program.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed James Baldwin on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[30]

In 2005 the USPS created a first-class postage stamp dedicated to him which featured him on the front, and on the back of the peeling paper had a short biography. One of Baldwin's richest short stories, "Sonny's Blues", appears in many anthologies of short fiction used in introductory college literature classes.

Works

Baldwin (right of center) with Hollywood actors Charlton Heston and Marlon Brando at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. Sidney Poitier (rear) and Harry Belafonte (right of Brando) can also be seen in the crowd.

Together with others:

Notes

  1. ^ Public Broadcasting Service. "James Baldwin: About the author". American Masters. 29 Nov 2006.
  2. ^ Jean-François Gounardoo, Joseph J. Rodgers (1992). The Racial Problem in the Works of Richard Wright and James Baldwin. Greenwood Press. p 158 p 148-200
  3. ^ Staff. "Richard Avedon", The Daily Telegraph, October 2, 2004. Accessed September 14, 2009. "He also edited the school magazine at DeWitt Clinton High, on which the black American writer James' Baldwin was literary editor."
  4. ^ Chireau Y. James "Baldwin's God: Sex, Hope and Crisis in Black Holiness Culture." Church History. December 2005;74(4):883-884.
  5. ^ James Baldwin, "The Discovery of What it Means to be an American," in The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985 (New York:St. Martin's Marek, 1985), 171.
  6. ^ James Baldwin, “Fifth Avenue, Uptown” in The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985 (New York: St. Martin’s/Marek, 1985), 206.
  7. ^ Zero: a review of literature and art, Issues 1-7. Arno Press, A New York Times Company. 1974. ISBN 0405017537. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
  8. ^ "James Baldwin," MSN Encarta. Archived 2009-10-31.
  9. ^ Zaborowska, Magdalena (2008). James Baldwin's Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822341441.
  10. ^ Field, Douglas. Passing as a Cold War novel : anxiety and assimilation in James Baldwin's Giovanni's room. In: American Cold War culture / edited by Douglas Field. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
  11. ^ a b Lawrie Balfour (2001). The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8698-2. page 51
  12. ^ Miller, D. Quentin. James Baldwin American Writers Retrospective Supplement II, ed. Jay Parini. Scribner's, 2003, 1-17
  13. ^ Paul Goodman (1962-06-24). "Not Enough of a World to Grow In (review of Another Country)". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Sheldon Binn (1963-01-31). "Reivew of The Fire Next Time". The New York Times.
  15. ^ Altman, Elias (May 2, 2011). "Watered Whiskey: James Baldwin's Uncollected Writings". The Nation.
  16. ^ David Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography (New York: Henry Holt, 1994), 134.
  17. ^ David Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography
  18. ^ "A Brando timeline". Chicago Sun-Times. 3 July 2004. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
  19. ^ “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” January 30, 1968 New York Post
  20. ^ Michelle M. Wright '"Alas, Poor Richard!": Transatlantic Baldwin, The Politics of Forgetting, and the Project of Modernity', James Baldwin Now, ed. Dwight A. McBride, New York University Press, 1999, page 208
  21. ^ "Baldwin Reflections". New York Times.
  22. ^ Winston Wilde, Legacies of Love p.93
  23. ^ Angelou, Maya (1987-12-20). "A brother's love". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
  24. ^ James Baldwin Biography, accessed December 2, 2010
  25. ^ James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered, The New York Times, December 20, 1987
  26. ^ Books & Writers, accessed December 2, 2010
  27. ^ James Baldwin, the Writer, Dies in France at 63, The New York Times, December 1, 1987
  28. ^ Out, vol. 14, Here Publishing, Feb 2006, p. 32, ISSN 1062-7928, Baldwin died of stomach cancer in St. Paul de Vence, France, on December 1, 1987.
  29. ^ James Baldwin, Eloquent Writer In Behalf of Civil Rights, Is Dead, The New York Times, December 2, 1987
  30. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.

Published as

  • Early Novels & Stories: Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni's Room, Another Country, Going to Meet the Man (Toni Morrison, ed.) (Library of America, 1998) ISBN 978-1-883011-51-2.
  • Collected Essays: Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, The Fire Next Time, No Name in the Street, The Devil Finds Work, Other Essays (Toni Morrison, ed.) (Library of America, 1998) ISBN 978-1-883011-52-9
Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Baldwin.
Wikiquote has quotations related to James Baldwin.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=James_Baldwin&oldid=444181241"