James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 â€" December 1, 1987) was an
American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His
essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore
intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western
society, most notably in regard to the mid-twentieth-century United
States. 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 Awardâ€"nominated
documentary film I Am Not Your Negro (2016). One of his novels, If
Beale Street Could Talk, was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning
dramatic 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, while gay and bisexual men also
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, written in 1956, well before the gay
liberation movement.James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924,
to Emma Berdis Jones, who left Baldwin's biological father because of
his drug abuse. She moved to Harlem where Baldwin was born in Harlem
Hospital. In New York, Jones married a Baptist preacher, David
Baldwin, with whom she had eight children, born between 1927 and 1943.
Her husband also had a son from a previous marriage who was nine years
older than James. The family was poor, and Baldwin's stepfather, whom
in essays he referred to as his father, treated him more harshly than
his other children. His intelligence combined with the persecution he
endured in his stepfather's home drove Baldwin to spend much of his
time alone in libraries.By the time Baldwin had reached adolescence,
he had discovered his passion for writing. His educators deemed him
gifted, and in 1937, at the age of 13, he wrote his first article,
titled "Harlemâ€"Then and Now", which was published in his school's
magazine, The Douglass Pilot.
American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His
essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore
intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western
society, most notably in regard to the mid-twentieth-century United
States. 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 Awardâ€"nominated
documentary film I Am Not Your Negro (2016). One of his novels, If
Beale Street Could Talk, was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning
dramatic 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, while gay and bisexual men also
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, written in 1956, well before the gay
liberation movement.James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924,
to Emma Berdis Jones, who left Baldwin's biological father because of
his drug abuse. She moved to Harlem where Baldwin was born in Harlem
Hospital. In New York, Jones married a Baptist preacher, David
Baldwin, with whom she had eight children, born between 1927 and 1943.
Her husband also had a son from a previous marriage who was nine years
older than James. The family was poor, and Baldwin's stepfather, whom
in essays he referred to as his father, treated him more harshly than
his other children. His intelligence combined with the persecution he
endured in his stepfather's home drove Baldwin to spend much of his
time alone in libraries.By the time Baldwin had reached adolescence,
he had discovered his passion for writing. His educators deemed him
gifted, and in 1937, at the age of 13, he wrote his first article,
titled "Harlemâ€"Then and Now", which was published in his school's
magazine, The Douglass Pilot.
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