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Eldridge Cleaver, of the Black Panthers, stated Baldwin's writing displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." Baldwin's play, Blues for Mister Charlie, was produced in 1964. His inclusion of gay themes resulted in a lot of savage criticism from the Black community. His novels include Giovanni's Room, about a white American expatriate who must come to terms with his homosexuality, and Another Country, about racial and gay sexual tensions among New York intellectuals. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in New York City. His essay collections Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, and The Fire Next Time was influential in informing a largely white audience.įrom 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the USA to lecture or teach. Go Tell It on the Mountain, his first novel, is a partially autobiographical account of his youth. Critics, however, note the impassioned cadences of Black churches are still evident in his writing. In the early 1940s, he transferred his faith from religion to literature. At age 14, Baldwin became a preacher at the small Fireside Pentecostal Church in Harlem.

He was the eldest of nine children his stepfather was a minister. James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and '60s.

Baldwin writes on these matters with unusual candor and yet with such dignity and intensity.Ībout The Author of The Book James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls in love with an Italian waiter and is confused and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.īy examining the mystery of love and passion in an intensely imagined narrative, Baldwin creates a moving and complex story of death and desire that is revealing in his vision.īook Review A young American man involved with a woman and a man. In a 1950s Paris filled with ex-pats and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to suppress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he imagines. Genres: Novel, Gay literature, Psychological Fictionīook Summary Baldwin's haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality and a classic in gay literature.