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Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin had an early career as a teenage preacher. He lived in Paris from 1948-1956 and his first novels, the autobiographical GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and GIOVANNI'S ROOM established him as a promising novelist and anticipated some of the themes of his later works, such as racism and sexuality. He became a prominent spokesperson for racial equality, especially during the civil rights movement. He lived in France during his last years. Baldwin died in 1987.
Today, when a great many arguments and complaints from the queer quarters of the political sphere have to do with what has been done to queerness by the patriarchy and by whiteness, Baldwin asks, in Giovanni’s Room, what love looks like, ultimately, when we leave all those bags at the door — and if we can. Do we know how to live in a purely queer world not defined by resistance or self-hatred?’ -- Hilton Als * New York Times Style Magazine * If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one -- Michael Ondaatje Baldwin writes of these matters with unusual candour and yet with such dignity and intensity * The New York Times * Audacious... remarkable... elegant and courageous -- Caryl Phillips Baldwin, in this novel, made clear that he could work wonders with the light and shade of intimacy -- Colm Tóibín * The New Yorker * Startling... This is Mr. Baldwin's subject, the rareness and difficulty of love -- Granville Hicks
