biography
| name: |
Baldwin, James (Arthur)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1924–87)
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| biography:
| Writer, born in Harlem, New York, USA. The son of a preacher, as a teenager he preached in a Harlem pentecostal church. After high school he began publishing polemical essays on the black experience in such journals as The Nation and Commentary. Supported largely by fellowships, he began writing fiction in Paris (1948–56). His first novels, the autobiographical Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and Giovanni's Room (1956), established him as a promising novelist and anticipated some of his later themes such as racism and homosexuality. In the USA, from 1957 until the 1970s, he became a civil rights activist, and through his essays, plays, and lectures, something of a celebrity as a spokesman for angry African-Americans. His novels include Another Country (1962), Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (1968), and Just Above My Head (1979). His essays were collected in several volumes including Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963), and The Price of a Ticket (1985). Among his plays are The Amen Corner (produced 1955) and Blues for Mister Charlie (1964). He lived in France during his last years, although he returned to the USA to hold special academic appointments. |
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