James Arthur Baldwin Biography

He showed a prodigious interest in writing from an early age, attending Frederick Douglass Junior High School and then De Witt Clinton High School, from which he graduated in 1942.

Baldwin became a preacher in 1938, at the age of 14, and in 1944 won the prestigious Julius Rosenwald Fellowship for his contributions to publications such as 'The Nation' and 'Partisan Review'.

After 1948, and the publication of his first major essay, 'The Harlem Ghetto', he divided his time between New York, Paris and Istanbul.

Baldwin drew heavily on his own life experience for his first novel, the modern classic 'Go Tell It on the Mountain' (1953). His second, 'Giovanni’s Room' (1956), detailing issues of race and sexuality, was closely followed by his first book of non-fiction, 'Notes of a Native Son' (1956). Baldwin published what is widely held to be his best novel, 'Another Country', in 1962, developing his themes concerning the identity-forming matrices of race, class and gender.

Baldwin’s later novels are widely held to be lesser, more one-dimensional works, such as 'Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone'(1968), 'If Beale Street Could Talk' (1974) and 'Just Above My Head' (1979). However, while the polemic nature of his writing was seen to diminish his fiction, it strongly informed his role as social commentator.

Collections such as 'The Fire Next Time' (1963) secured his position as one of the foremost essayists of his generation, as well as earning him a place on the Advisory Board to the Commission for Racial Equality (1964-66), and a prominent role within the civil rights movement.

Baldwin also published three well-received plays, 'Amen Corner' (written in 1958, first performed 1965), 'Blues for Mister Charlie' (1964), and 'One Day When I Was Lost' (1972), as well as a collection of poetry, 'Jimmy’s Blues: Selected Poems' (1983). In 1964, he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1986 received the Legion of Honour from the French government.

Between 1984 and 1987, he held several lectureships in US universities, including a professorship as the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. James Baldwin died in Paris on 1 December 1987 from stomach cancer, at the age of 63.

When Baldwin returned from France in 1962, he visited the south of America and began a tour of lectures about the civil rights movement gaining traction at the time. He positioned himself in between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

He joined author Lorraine Hansberry and actors Harry Belafonte and Marlon Brando as one of the most prominent and high-profile civil rights figures in America.

Baldwin has had a strong impact on writers of all backgrounds thanks to his defiant position as part of a minority.

In 1992, Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where Baldwin once taught, launched the James Baldwin Scholars program, which helps young people in the urban area engage with literature.

Fellow black writer Toni Morrison has collected a two-volume Library of America edition of Baldwin's stories and essays and the United States Postal Service has honoured him with a first-class postage stamp featuring his profile.