The Modern Novel

Biography

James Baldwin was born in 1924 in Harlem. His mother was unmarried. Three years later she married David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher, who adopted the young James. The couple had eight children together. James spent his childhood reading and caring for his younger siblings. He started writing while at school. At the age of fourteen, he had a religious conversion and became a Pentecostal, partially to spite his stepfather, whom he hated. After school, he worked at a variety of odd jobs, partially to support his family as his stepfather was in a mental hospital. He was also writing reviews and short stories for magazines. His stepfather died in 1943 and his mother gave birth to their eighth child at around the same time. At this time he met Richard Wright, who helped him get an award for promising writers. In 1948, he went to Paris where he lived for nearly ten years.

Life wasn’t easy for him in Paris, as he had considerable financial difficulties. However, he found less racism and more tolerance towards his homosexuality. In 1949, he published his famous Everybody’s Protest Novel in the Partisan Review, which attacked protest fiction, including Wright’s. This created a rift between the two men that was never repaired. At this time he worked hard on a novel called In My Father’s House, which was finally published in 1953 as Go Tell it on the Mountain, about a young black man’s relationship with his stepfather and his subsequent religious conversion. The work received excellent reviews. His second novel, Giovanni’s Room, focused less on race and more on sexuality and had mixed reviews. His next novel, Another Country, – he had also published two collection of essays – also had mixed reviews, some acclaiming it as failure while others recognised it for its ambition. On a personal level, Baldwin had now returned to the United States and was getting increasingly involved in the political movement of the early Sixties, particularly civil rights issues. He continued to publish essays, stories and novels and wrote plays. However his later novels were not well received. He returned to France, living in Vence, where he died in 1987 of cancer.

Other links

James Baldwin
James Baldwin
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
James Baldwin: An Appreciation
More on James Baldwin
James Baldwin, ‘Lifting The Veil’
An Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis by James Baldwin
Obituary
Interview
Interview