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komet2020's review
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
James Baldwin (1924-1987) was one of the foremost writers and thinkers of the 20th century. He first came to my attention in the autumn of 1979, when, I, then a 10th grader, was assigned to read one of his novels, Go Tell It on the Mountain, in English class. In the intervening years, he has seldom been far from my thoughts of literature's role in society, confronting and speaking the truth about the ongoing corrosive impacts of racism in the U.S. and worldwide, challenging that racism, Baldwin's battle for Black identity, and his lifelong struggles to "end the racial nightmare and achieve our country." Yet, in all that time, I had never sought out a biography about this richly talented writer and social gadfly. That is, until I picked up this book from the local library a short time ago.
Baldwin was born in Harlem, which at the time of his birth, was a largely mixed area of New York City, with fairly even numbers of African Americans and whites living side by side. He never knew his real father. But when his mother married David Baldwin, a laborer (with whom she would give birth to 8 other children), Baldwin fully accepted him as his father, though theirs was not an easy relationship. The elder Baldwin had come up to New York from the South, with a deep distrust of white people. He struggled to find a place for himself and his family in society, and went on to serve as a preacher with his own church. For Baldwin, his father came to typify the psychologically damaged and embittered African American man whom the larger society denigrated and marginalized at every turn, and sought to destroy should he become a threat to what was regarded as "the normal order of things" in Jim Crow America.
From early childhood, Baldwin was recognized by some of his teachers (including the first African American principal in New York City at his first school) as having a talent for writing, and he was encouraged to write. Baldwin would also develop into a voracious reader, with Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin being among his favorite books as a preteen. It was at this time that he made the acquaintance of Orilla "Bill" Miller, a young white woman schoolteacher from the Midwest who would come to play a significant influence in Baldwin's life, taking him to see plays, movies, and encouraging his writing talent. Baldwin himself gave Miller partial credit in that he "never really managed to hate white people."
Later, in junior high school, Baldwin would have Countee Cullen, one of the celebrated poets of the Harlem Renaissance, as one of his teachers. Baldwin would later attribute to Cullen his latent desire to live in France - Cullen had been a teacher of French at Baldwin's junior high school, as well as an advisor to the school's English department. After high school, Baldwin applied for and was accepted into DeWitt Clinton High School, a mainly white and Jewish high school in the Bronx that instilled a desire for high achievement among its student body. While there, Baldwin struck up a friendship with Richard Avedon, who was later one of America's top photographers.
It was during his student days at DeWitt Clinton that Baldwin experienced struggles with his sexuality (he was attracted to men) and the impacts of racism in his daily life. It was the latter that would prove difficult for him to come to terms with following his graduation from high school (1941) and some of the wartime work he performed as a laborer in New Jersey, working closely with white colleagues, many of whom had come from the Deep South in search of work, who resented Baldwin for not showing what they regarded as "proper servile behavior" for an African American. Baldwin also struggled with his religious faith, which led him to become a preacher for a time. He ended up being fired from the job he had in New Jersey and returned to Harlem to work in a meat packing plant. Indeed, Baldwin would bounce around from job to job from his late teens into early adulthood, fearing that he might end up like his father (who had died in a sanatorium from tuberculosis when he was 19), eking out an aimless existence.
From Harlem, Baldwin went to Greenwich Village where he made the acquaintance of Beauford Delaney, an African American modernist painter 23 years his senior. He helped Baldwin to see that an African American man could make a living as an artist. He would serve as a mentor to Baldwin, who at that time in his life, had suffered his first nervous breakdown and had taken up drinking. The Harlem of his childhood, which was for him a "renaissance city" had metamorphosed over time in a very hard place for African Americans in which to live, with its temptations of drugs, crime, and alcohol within easy reach.
Baldwin studied acting for a short time at The New School, where he made the acquaintance of Marlon Brando, with whom he would strike up a lifelong friendship. He also had a succession of sexual relationships with men (ultimately unsatisfying emotionally) and a few with women. All the while, Baldwin kept writing. In 1945, he started a literary magazine with the help of the wife of a former DeWitt Clinton schoolmate. This was also the time when Baldwin met Richard Wright, arguably then the premier African American novelist. He encouraged Baldwin with his writing after Baldwin had shared with him a manuscript he had been working on, which would later become Go Tell It on the Mountain. Though later the two men would have a falling out, it was Wright who helped Baldwin win a Rosenwald Fellowship, which facilitated his move to Paris in 1948.
The book goes into considerable detail about Baldwin's expatriate life in France (which lasted a decade) during which Baldwin came into his own as a write, thinker, and critic. He cultivated a wide variety of people into his life, not all of whom had his best interests at heart. The author (who first met Baldwin in Turkey in 1961, where he was working as a teacher; later the 2 became lifelong friends) shares with the reader the full extent of Baldwin's involvement in the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement from the late 1950s (when Baldwin made his first visits to the segregated South; though fearful of going to the South, he felt he had to experience it first-hand to better understand the sting of overt racism/white supremacy there), his friendships with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X and on through the 1960s.
What most impressed me about James Baldwin was his unwavering commitment to social justice, to speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo through his novels and plays, and his frustrated ambition to work in films. (Baldwin was a lifelong movie fan.) This book showed me that there was much more to James Baldwin than I had previously thought.
What made me a bit sad is that, from reading the book, I don't think that Baldwin truly found the personal happiness he sought most out of life. Yet, he was at times honest enough with himself and some of his friends and associates in conceding that he wasn't always an easy person to live with. Baldwin's life was that of the artist who braved the slings and arrows society heaped upon him in his pursuit of truths that he believed could help make possible a better understanding among people - and ultimately, an enlightened humanity where racism and injustice would have no place.
Baldwin was born in Harlem, which at the time of his birth, was a largely mixed area of New York City, with fairly even numbers of African Americans and whites living side by side. He never knew his real father. But when his mother married David Baldwin, a laborer (with whom she would give birth to 8 other children), Baldwin fully accepted him as his father, though theirs was not an easy relationship. The elder Baldwin had come up to New York from the South, with a deep distrust of white people. He struggled to find a place for himself and his family in society, and went on to serve as a preacher with his own church. For Baldwin, his father came to typify the psychologically damaged and embittered African American man whom the larger society denigrated and marginalized at every turn, and sought to destroy should he become a threat to what was regarded as "the normal order of things" in Jim Crow America.
From early childhood, Baldwin was recognized by some of his teachers (including the first African American principal in New York City at his first school) as having a talent for writing, and he was encouraged to write. Baldwin would also develop into a voracious reader, with Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin being among his favorite books as a preteen. It was at this time that he made the acquaintance of Orilla "Bill" Miller, a young white woman schoolteacher from the Midwest who would come to play a significant influence in Baldwin's life, taking him to see plays, movies, and encouraging his writing talent. Baldwin himself gave Miller partial credit in that he "never really managed to hate white people."
Later, in junior high school, Baldwin would have Countee Cullen, one of the celebrated poets of the Harlem Renaissance, as one of his teachers. Baldwin would later attribute to Cullen his latent desire to live in France - Cullen had been a teacher of French at Baldwin's junior high school, as well as an advisor to the school's English department. After high school, Baldwin applied for and was accepted into DeWitt Clinton High School, a mainly white and Jewish high school in the Bronx that instilled a desire for high achievement among its student body. While there, Baldwin struck up a friendship with Richard Avedon, who was later one of America's top photographers.
It was during his student days at DeWitt Clinton that Baldwin experienced struggles with his sexuality (he was attracted to men) and the impacts of racism in his daily life. It was the latter that would prove difficult for him to come to terms with following his graduation from high school (1941) and some of the wartime work he performed as a laborer in New Jersey, working closely with white colleagues, many of whom had come from the Deep South in search of work, who resented Baldwin for not showing what they regarded as "proper servile behavior" for an African American. Baldwin also struggled with his religious faith, which led him to become a preacher for a time. He ended up being fired from the job he had in New Jersey and returned to Harlem to work in a meat packing plant. Indeed, Baldwin would bounce around from job to job from his late teens into early adulthood, fearing that he might end up like his father (who had died in a sanatorium from tuberculosis when he was 19), eking out an aimless existence.
From Harlem, Baldwin went to Greenwich Village where he made the acquaintance of Beauford Delaney, an African American modernist painter 23 years his senior. He helped Baldwin to see that an African American man could make a living as an artist. He would serve as a mentor to Baldwin, who at that time in his life, had suffered his first nervous breakdown and had taken up drinking. The Harlem of his childhood, which was for him a "renaissance city" had metamorphosed over time in a very hard place for African Americans in which to live, with its temptations of drugs, crime, and alcohol within easy reach.
Baldwin studied acting for a short time at The New School, where he made the acquaintance of Marlon Brando, with whom he would strike up a lifelong friendship. He also had a succession of sexual relationships with men (ultimately unsatisfying emotionally) and a few with women. All the while, Baldwin kept writing. In 1945, he started a literary magazine with the help of the wife of a former DeWitt Clinton schoolmate. This was also the time when Baldwin met Richard Wright, arguably then the premier African American novelist. He encouraged Baldwin with his writing after Baldwin had shared with him a manuscript he had been working on, which would later become Go Tell It on the Mountain. Though later the two men would have a falling out, it was Wright who helped Baldwin win a Rosenwald Fellowship, which facilitated his move to Paris in 1948.
The book goes into considerable detail about Baldwin's expatriate life in France (which lasted a decade) during which Baldwin came into his own as a write, thinker, and critic. He cultivated a wide variety of people into his life, not all of whom had his best interests at heart. The author (who first met Baldwin in Turkey in 1961, where he was working as a teacher; later the 2 became lifelong friends) shares with the reader the full extent of Baldwin's involvement in the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement from the late 1950s (when Baldwin made his first visits to the segregated South; though fearful of going to the South, he felt he had to experience it first-hand to better understand the sting of overt racism/white supremacy there), his friendships with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X and on through the 1960s.
What most impressed me about James Baldwin was his unwavering commitment to social justice, to speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo through his novels and plays, and his frustrated ambition to work in films. (Baldwin was a lifelong movie fan.) This book showed me that there was much more to James Baldwin than I had previously thought.
What made me a bit sad is that, from reading the book, I don't think that Baldwin truly found the personal happiness he sought most out of life. Yet, he was at times honest enough with himself and some of his friends and associates in conceding that he wasn't always an easy person to live with. Baldwin's life was that of the artist who braved the slings and arrows society heaped upon him in his pursuit of truths that he believed could help make possible a better understanding among people - and ultimately, an enlightened humanity where racism and injustice would have no place.
karen_hallam's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliant mind! I felt such a connection to this man, and his words and aspirations for humanity, yet we are so different, but perhaps we are not.
kevin_shepherd's review
3.0
In preface, let me say that I learned a good deal more about James Baldwin in David Leeming’s biography than I thought probable.
For instance, I learned that early in his writing career Baldwin’s ability to accurately portray life in the Jim Crow South was called into question because he was, by birth, a “northerner.” I learned that his writing style was mocked by Alex Haley (“I like those Baldwin sentences with all them commas 'n'shit”). I learned, not surprisingly, that Baldwin's work was often considered immoral and offensive. I learned that Baldwin had both public and private tussles with Langston Hughes over which of them wrote “real books” and which of them wrote “piles of slogans and manifestos.” I also learned that James Baldwin thought that racism was so infused into white culture, so endemic to America, that many white folks were oblivious to its existence; a state of insensibility that he politely termed “White Innocence.”
My issue with author David Leeming’s book stems not from his source material but rather from his complete lack of objectivity. Leeming’s intimate friendship with Baldwin is evident from the start and as a result his biography often comes across as both tabloid and cliché. 3 stars.
For instance, I learned that early in his writing career Baldwin’s ability to accurately portray life in the Jim Crow South was called into question because he was, by birth, a “northerner.” I learned that his writing style was mocked by Alex Haley (“I like those Baldwin sentences with all them commas 'n'shit”). I learned, not surprisingly, that Baldwin's work was often considered immoral and offensive. I learned that Baldwin had both public and private tussles with Langston Hughes over which of them wrote “real books” and which of them wrote “piles of slogans and manifestos.” I also learned that James Baldwin thought that racism was so infused into white culture, so endemic to America, that many white folks were oblivious to its existence; a state of insensibility that he politely termed “White Innocence.”
My issue with author David Leeming’s book stems not from his source material but rather from his complete lack of objectivity. Leeming’s intimate friendship with Baldwin is evident from the start and as a result his biography often comes across as both tabloid and cliché. 3 stars.
juditkovacs's review
4.0
Really good biography. Wonderfully written, and quite detailed. Was a bit confused at times with the names of personal friends mentioned, but for the most it was fine.
Also contains spoilers for all of Baldwin's works, and some very interesting, and well written analysis for each.
Also contains spoilers for all of Baldwin's works, and some very interesting, and well written analysis for each.
zciweikturoj's review against another edition
5.0
An incredible biography. James Baldwin is my favorite writer because he is so much more than an author or artist: he’s an icon. I sought this out for the forthcoming biopic based on this book, and I cannot wait to see it. Highly, highly recommend if you have an interest in Baldwin, the Civil Rights Movement, or understanding the complex mind of an artist.
halschrieve's review against another edition
5.0
This lengthy, beautiful tribute by David Leeming is comprehensive and occasionally personal. Its scope is astounding and the access Leeming has had to personal papers for Baldwin deeply enrich the narrative's ability to pin down what Baldwin was feeling when, and to track shifts in his mentality on politics and love. A must-have biography.
adeliyiannis's review against another edition
4.0
5 stars for the biography, 3 stars for the narration
emcatbee's review
It was an audiobook and I think it was a combination of not having enough base knowledge about James Baldwin and a bad time to be listening.
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