A brief exploration of the life and legacy of James Baldwin
by Gabriel Bell
This blog is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum’s ongoing special exhibit and programming initiative. On display now, American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture is a powerful new exhibit that takes visitors on the ultimate exploration through spirituality and storytelling. Discover rare artifacts and creative works from literature, film, music, and comedy along the way. This isn’t just an exhibit—it’s a shared journey of reflection, inspiration, and connection through the stories that move us all.
Born in Harlem on August 2, 1924 to a laundress and an abrasive step-father, James Baldwin’s humble origins hardly foretell the incredible life he would come to live. Baldwin was the eldest sibling in a household that demanded he and his mother serve as a barrier between his eight siblings and his domineering father, a household in which (as he told interviewers later in life) he “was born dead.” Even so, Baldwin fanned the flames of his passion for reading and writing whenever possible, and at only 14 he took up preaching at the Fireside Pentecostal Assembly—a position from which the ball of public speaking, writing, and thinking would first roll, and wouldn’t stop until his death on December 1, 1987 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.
In preparation for the American Writers Museum’s program The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde with Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad on January 29, the following is a wildly-abridged biography of James Baldwin from his time as a preacher in New York to his death in the south of France. This article is by no means a full biography, but it hopes to offer a brief introduction to the sprawling and spectacular life of one of the greatest American writers, thinkers, and speakers of the last 100 years.
1938-1947: Becoming Baldwin
Baldwin’s stint as a pastor, beginning sometime in 1938 at the age of 14, lasted only three years, with his last sermon being sometime in 1941. That same year, he left DeWitt Clinton High School, floating between jobs to help support his family until 1943, which brought not only the Harlem race riots, but the death of Baldwin’s stepfather. Disillusioned and depressed, wanting to indulge his passion for writing, and struggling to hold a steady job, Baldwin made the first of many radical relocations in his life—this time, to Greenwich Village.
Baldwin’s time in Greenwich Village was the first and most radical evolution in his personal and professional life. Here, Baldwin made his first serious attempt at living out his authorial aspirations, writing for local magazines like The New Leader, The Nation, and Commentary. It was for these journals that some of his very first written works — “Journey to Atlanta” for The New Leader, and “The Harlem Ghetto: Winter 1948” and “Previous Condition” for Commentary — were published. Around 1944, toward the end of his time in Greenwich Village, Baldwin first came into contact with Richard Wright, one of the most prominent African-American authors in America at the time. Baldwin’s relationship with Wright—at times as his student, other times as a peer, and yet other times as an academic and interpersonal rival—came to define the character and content of his writing for much of his life.
1948-1956: The Paris Years
By 1948, Baldwin had become disillusioned with the United States, and believed that a move to Paris would provide him a better perspective on himself, his country, his race, and his slow reckoning with his gay identity. Thus, at 24 years old, Baldwin packed his bags and flew to Paris, where he hotel- and couch-surfed for the next nine years in pursuit of his dream of writing for a living. Here, he became close associates with such a vast swathe of writers, publishers, and playwrights across so many backgrounds, they could scarcely be named in totality here. Among these associates were Themistocles Hoetis, Truman Capote, and Maya Angelou, the latter of which remained a lifelong friend and delivered a eulogy at his funeral.
Alongside a smattering of essays, articles, and even a three-act play, Baldwin’s time in Paris yielded some of his most iconic texts. In 1953, Baldwin published Go Tell It on The Mountain, a semi-autobiographical novel that served as Baldwin’s big break into the world of career writing. Two years later, Notes of a Native Son alienated him from his ex-mentor Richard Wright, as two of the text’s ten essays — “Everybody’s Protest Novel” and “Many Thousands Gone” — were direct critiques of Wright’s own work. His last year in Paris, 1956, saw the publication of Giovanni’s Room, in which he directly grapples with the subject of homosexuality.
1957-1987: Transatlantic Commuter
From 1957 on, James Baldwin became a self-described “transatlantic commuter.” At various times he returned to New York, travelled around the U.S., spent stretches of time in Istanbul and Israel, and eventually secured a permanent residence in the French commune of Saint-Paul (now Saint-Paul-de-Vence) in the south of France toward the end of his life. To lump these three decades of Baldwin’s life into one category is a dire oversimplification, as he found himself influenced and inspired by a whole host of developments, both in his own life and in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
In the 1960s, Baldwin published some of his most unique and ubiquitous work—namely, Another Country (1962), The Fire Next Time (1963), and Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968). Of these, the two-essay book The Fire Next Time has remained one of Baldwin’s most acclaimed and best-selling works, catapulting him to (inter)national fame as a public intellectual on civil rights. The ’70s and ’80s were equally productive for him, with the most iconic text from this era of Baldwin’s life being his 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk. In the background of this, Baldwin took up a number of more public occupations, including a debate at Cambridge University against conservative speaker William F. Buckley that has remained in academic rotation and conversation ever since.
1987: Death and Reflection
On December 1, 1987, after a brief bout with stomach cancer, James Baldwin passed away in his residence in Saint-Paul. Eulogized by the likes of Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, and Toni Morrison, such a star-studded cast of mourners illustrates how important Baldwin’s work and lasting legacy was, and continues to be. Every word he wrote seemed to challenge the status quo, with every work he published touching on some under-explored element of American life. Baldwin’s insights on civil rights, racism, and the gay experience in America remain prescient even today. The bravery he showed to boldly and openly discuss these topics continues to inspire great contemporary American writers and scholars like Christopher W. Hunt (Jimmy’s Faith), Nicholas Buccola (The Fire Is Upon Us), and Robert Jones, Jr. (The Prophets).
Gabriel Bell is a history student at the University of British Columbia with a focus on international relations and modern American politics. A published author and regular contributor to his university’s music newspaper “The Discorder”, he has a passion for both writing and teaching, and strives to keep his explanations of the world entertaining and engaging without sacrificing an inch of information.