James Baldwin American Essayist, Novelist and Playwright Stamp Design by Thomas Blackshear To be Issued August 2, 2004

James Arthur Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York on August 2, 1924. As a noted American novelist and playwright, his eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made his voice an important and powerful force in the fight against racism. Baldwin, who was openly gay, was also outspoken in his criticism of discrimination against Lesbian and Gay people.

The eldest of nine children, James grew up in poverty in Harlem, in New York. From  the age of 14 to 16, he was active in his after school hours as a preacher in a small revivalist church. James wrote about this period in his life in his semi-autobiographical first and finest novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" published in 1953 and in his play about a woman evangelist, "The Amen Corner" performed in New York City in 1965.

After graduation from high school, James began a restless period of low paying jobs, self-study, and literary apprenticeship in Greenwich Village. He left New York in 1948 for Paris, France, where he lived for the next eight years. His second novel, "Giovanni's Room" published in 1956, deals with the white world and concerns an American in Paris torn between his love for a man and his love for a woman. During this period, he also wrote a collection of essays in 1955 called,  "Notes of a Native Son".

In 1957 he returned to the United States and became an active participant in the civil-rights struggle that was sweeping the nation. His book of essays published in 1961, "Nobody Knows My Name," explores black and white relations in the United States. This theme also was central to his novel Another Country, which examines sexual as well as racial issues.

The New Yorker magazine gave over almost all of its November 17, 1962  issue to a long article by Baldwin on the Black Muslim separatist movement and other aspects of the civil-rights struggle. The article, "The Fire Next Time" was published in book form in 1963 and became a best-seller. His bitter play about racist oppression, "Blues for Mister Charlie" played on Broadway to mixed reviews in 1964.

Though Baldwin continued to write until his death; publishing works which included: Going to Meet the Man, a collection of short stories; and the novels Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone in 1968, If Beale Street Could Talk in 1974, and Just Above My Head in 1979; none of his later works achieved the popular and critical success of his early work.

James Baldwin died in Saint-Paul, France on December 1, 1987.

  
Source: 
Encyclopedia Britannica