James Baldwin Brief Biography

American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Essayist and Playwright

Aug 26, 2009 Tel Asiado

Brief profile of the life and works of American writer James Baldwin, famous for Go Tell It on the Mountain, his first novel.

James Baldwin was a leading American writer in his time. His novels, essays and short stories express the anger of a generation of African Americans during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Early Years of James Baldwin

James Arthur Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York City on August 2, 1924. He was the eldest of nine children, and educated at New York City schools. At age three, his mother re-married a preacher whose fanatical religious beliefs and strictness had a strong influence on the young James. He grew up in poverty and in fear of his stepfather, along with the violence of the city.

As an escape, he turned to literature from an early age. He had read Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin before he was eight. Between 14 and 17 Baldwin also turned to religion and became a preacher in small evangelical churches in Harlem. At about the same time, he discovered he was homosexual.

When he was 20, Baldwin began to write his first novel. An early version was rejected by publishers. Four years later, following the suicide of a friend, Baldwin decided to leave America and he went to live in France.

Go Tell It on the Mountain and Insight on James Baldwin

Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was finally listed when he was 29-years -ld. Like his later novels, it explores the prejudice that he encountered and had to live with, as a black man and a homosexual, and the terrible effects of prejudice on society.

In the late 1950s, Baldwin returned to the US to witness the progress of anti-racism laws. He became a spokesman for the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and published many articles about the political position of African Americans.

James Baldwin's literary works, including his essays, are among the most influential expressions of the aspirations of the U.S. blacks in the 1950s and 1960s. He died at the age of 63, December 1, 1987.

A Quote from Baldwin,

In Notes for a Hypothetical Novel in Nobody Knows My Nam, Baldwin wrote, "Now, this country is going to be transformed. It will not be transformed by an act of God, but by all of us, you and me. I don't believe any longer that we can afford to say that it is entirely out of hands. We made the world we're living in and we have to make it over."

Major Books by James Baldwin

• Go Tell It on the Mountain, 1953
• Notes of a Native Son, 1955
• Giovanni's Room, 1956
• Nobody Knows My Name, 1960
• Another country, 1963
• The Fire Next Time, 1963
• Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, 1968
• If Beale Street Could Talk, 1974
• Just above My Head, 1979
• Harlem Quartet, 1987

Sources:

• Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994.
• McGovern, Una, Ed. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2002.
• Oxford Who's Who in the 20th Century. Oxford: OUP, 1999.
• Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997.

The copyright of the article James Baldwin Brief Biography in Great Thinkers is owned by Tel Asiado. Permission to republish James Baldwin Brief Biography in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

James Baldwin, American Novelist and Playwright