James Arthur Baldwin

Text Box:

Biography 

·      Born 1924, first of nine children, grew up in Harlem

·      Stepson of preacher who was the son of a slave.  Stepfather was a bitter man and was judgmental and condemning of white people.  He was a hell and brimstone preacher and was verbally abusive toward James.  James became a preacher at the age of 14 but later turned away from the church.

·      Stepfather died on James’ 19th birthday, after being in an institution for mental illness.

·      Baldwin discovers racism in Harlem after thinking it was a Southern issue.

·      Baldwin’s mission:  “to bear witness to the truth.” 

·      He eventually moved to Paris where through his writing his anger turned into political motivation; although he rejected the term “spokesman” for the Civil Right’s Movement: “A spokesman assumes that he is speaking for others.  I never assumed that I could.  What I tried to do, or to interpret and make clear, was that no society can smash the social contract and be exempt from the consequences, and the consequences are chaos for everybody in the society.”  (Baldwin also opposed military involvement in Vietnam and criticized discrimination against homosexuals in the 1960’s.)

Writing

·      Most critics believe his essays to be his best works, particularly Notes of a Native Son. 

Toni Morrison Tribute, written shortly after his death for the New York Times in which she spoke of three gifts that he gave her:

1.     language—honest, elegant, and clear

2.     courage—transform distances between people, oppose society

3.     tenderness—vulnerable, inquisitive, and has high expectations

 

Writers Speak of James Baldwin

  Ralph Ellison described Baldwin as “One of the most imporatnat American essayists, black or white.”

  Langston Hughes commented “Few American writers handle words more effectively in the essay form than James Baldwin.  To my way of thinking, he is much better at provoking thought in the essay than he is in arousing emotion in fiction.”

  Maya Angelou discovered Baldwin’s unique love: “I knew Jim loved me when he…took me to Mother Baldwin and said ‘Just what you don’t need, another daughter, but here she is.’  James Baldwin knew that black women in this desolate world, black women in this cruel time which has no soundness in it, have a crying need for brothers.  He knew that brother’s love redeems a sister’s pain.  His love opened the unusual door for me and I am blesses that James Baldwin was my brother.”

  Toni Morrison paid tribute to Baldwin with the words “You made American English honest—genuinely international…You stripped it of ease and false comfort and fake innocence and evasion and hypocrisy.  And in place of deviousness was clarity…In your hands language was handsome again.  In your hands we saw how it was meant to be: neither bloodless nor bloody, and yet alive.”

  All quotes taken from http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin.html

Websites

this site has some interesting facts and a lot of basic information:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/baldwin_j.html

  for a great picture of James Baldwin go to this site:
http://www.pathfinder.com/photo/essay/african/cap28.htm

  for a unique picture but a poor site go to this site:
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/writer/NativeSon.html

  for criticism and links to other sites, try:
http://www.ipl.org/cgi-bin/ref/litcrit/litcrit.out.pl?au=bal-776

  for one critic’s opinion of “Going to Meet the Man,” try this site:
http://www.ashland.edu/~rollis/Baldwin.html

  for a list of Baldwin’s works, try this site:
http://www.clpgh.org/clp/Humanities/baldwin.html

  for a great site of NewYork Times articles on James Baldwin, click here:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin.html

  for a list of more Baldwin links, try this site:
http://www.tstonramp.com/~jpw/links.html

  for a site that has documented photographs of lynchings, go here:
http://www.journale.com/withoutsanctuary/
[this site is extremely graphic and very disturbing]

--Created by Blythe Owen.