James Baldwin: a biography

James Baldwin has become an American literary icon. He explored issues of race and racism in America, class distinction, and sexual difference in works that are now part of the canon, such as "Go Tell It on the Mountain", "Giovanni's Room", "Another Country", "The Fire Next Time", and "The Evidence of Things Not Seen". A gay African American writer who was born in Harlem, he found the freedom to express himself living in exile in Paris. When he returned to America to cover the civil rights movement, he became an activist and controversial spokesman for the movement. In this indispensable biography, David Leeming creates an intimate portrait of a complex, troubled, driven, and brilliant man. He plumbs every aspect of Baldwin's life: his relationships with the unknown and the famous, including Beauford Delaney, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and childhood friend Richard Avedon; his expatriate years in France and Turkey; his gift for compassion and love; the public pressures that overwhelmed his quest for happiness; and his passionate battle for black identity, racial justice, and to "end the racial nightmare and achieve our country." -- From publisher's description.

Originally published: New York : Knopf, 1994.

The Harlem life -- Bill Miller -- Awakenings -- Beauford Delaney -- Probings -- The expatriate -- Lucien and the mountain -- "Go Tell It on the Mountain" -- The search for Giovanni -- "Notes of a Native Son" -- "The Amen Corner" -- A period of transition -- "Giovanni's Room" -- End of an era -- The journey south -- The call of the stage -- Sermons and blues -- In search of a role -- "Nobody Knows My Name" -- "Another Country" -- Africa and "The Fire Next Time" -- The activist -- "Blues for Mister Charlie" -- Lucien and the white problem -- Searching for a new life -- Istanbul -- "Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone" -- "One Day, When I Was Lost" -- "No Name in the Street" -- "If Beale Street Could Talk" -- "The Devil Finds Work" -- "Just Above My Head" -- "The Evidence of Things Not Seen": Remember This House" -- Gathering around the welcome table -- Chronological bibliography of printed works by James Baldwin.