Image of James Baldwin

Timeline

Lifetime: 1924 - 1987 Passed: ≈ 36 years ago

Title

Novelist, Playwright, Activist

Country/Nationality

United States
Wikipedia

James Baldwin

James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His essays, collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in the Western society of the United States during the mid-twentieth-century. Some of Baldwin's essays are book-length, including The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). An unfinished manuscript, Remember This House, was expanded and adapted for cinema as the Academy Award-nominated documentary film I Am Not Your Negro (2016). One of his novels, If Beale Street Could Talk, was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film of the same name in 2018, directed and produced by Barry Jenkins.

Baldwin's novels, short stories, and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures. Themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class intertwine to create intricate narratives that run parallel with some of the major political movements toward social change in mid-twentieth-century America, such as the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. Baldwin's protagonists are often but not exclusively African American, and gay and bisexual men frequently feature as protagonists in his literature. These characters often face internal and external obstacles in their search for social- and self-acceptance. Such dynamics are prominent in Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, which was written in 1956, well before the gay liberation movement.

Books by James Baldwin

Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children Cover image

Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children

Adventure Action Fiction
Individuality Narrative Society Isolation

First published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe is a book that marks the beginning of realistic fiction writing in English. Its simple, linear narrative style and the semblance of being a true account and autobiographical in nature led to its great populari...

Fifty Famous Stories Retold Cover image

Fifty Famous Stories Retold

Fiction
Children's Literature Short Stories

King Alfred and the Cakes. Damon and Pythias. The Sword of Damocles. Bruce and the Spider. These are stories that many people who grew up in the last century would be familiar with. They were included in our text books or to be found in anthologies i...

Four Great Americans: Washington, Franklin, Webster, Lincoln Cover image

Four Great Americans: Washington, Franklin, Webster, Lincoln

History Biography
Children's Literature Philosopher

Written for children, James Baldwin's history of Washington, Franklin, Webster, and Lincoln brings these men to life in a way that will be interesting for adults as well. The stories touch on the little humanities of the great men, rather than dwelli...

Old Greek Stories Cover image

Old Greek Stories

Fiction Fairy Tale
Short Stories Myths Legends

A retelling of old Greek stories involving mythological heroes and their adventures. Tales include those of Prometheus, Io, Perseus and Theseus.

Four Great Americans Cover image

Four Great Americans

Written for children, James Baldwin's history of Washington, Franklin, Webster, and Lincoln brings these men to life in a way that will be interesting for adults as well. The stories touch on the little humanities of the great men, rather than dwelli...

Thirty More Famous Stories Retold Cover image

Thirty More Famous Stories Retold

Thirty More Famous Stories Retold, the sequel to the popular Fifty Famous Stories Retold, retells the stories of legendary people and mythological figures in simple, easy-to-understand language appropriate for intermediate readers and listeners of al...

Stories of Don Quixote : written anew for young people Cover image

Stories of Don Quixote : written anew for young people

The romance entitled "The Achievements of the Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote de la Mancha," was originally written in Spanish by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in the 17th century. It has been read and enjoyed by men and women of the most diverse tas...