One of the leading AfricanAmerican authors of his generation known for novels and essays that examined blackwhite and sexual relationshipsnbspJames Arthur Baldwin nbspis best known for his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain an autobiographical tale of growing up in Harlem. Particularly noted as an essayist during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s James Baldwin . novelist essayist playwright has most of his work dealing with racial and sexual issues in the mid20th century United States. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity as well as for how they examine complex social and psychological pressures related to being black and gay well before the social cultural or political equality of these groups could be assured. He turned to writing after being encouraged by Richard Wright. Like Wright he left the U. S. after World War II and moved to France. His novels including Giovanni's Room 1956 Another Country 1962 and Just Above My Head 1979 all deal with the struggle for individuality against intolerance. He also wrote several plays including Blues For Mister Charlie 1964 and Evidence of Things Not Seen 1986 a book about raciallymotivated child murders in Atlanta. James Baldwin has used novels and essays to focus on his favorite themes the failure of the promise of American democracy questions of racial and sexual identity the failures of the Christian church difficult family relationships and the political and social worlds that shaped the American Negro and then despised him for that shaping. Frequently employing a third person plural voice in his essays Baldwin exhorts the exploiters and the exploited to save the country from its own destructive tendencies. An activist who put his body on the line with his politics Baldwin was intimidatingly articulate in telling it like it is in interviews as well as on paper. A small man whose voice was one of the largest America had ever heard and his facenbspasnbspuniquely and intensely expressive as his voice and his writings Baldwin was intent upon pricking the consciences of all Americans in an eraparticularly the 1960swhen a liberal climate was especially receptive to that pricking. Even when pushed slightly into the literary background with the wide publishingnbspof African American women writers and the scholarly focus on their works after 1980nbsp though henbsppublished fewer booklength works he never lost sight of his ultimate objectives to write well and to be a good man. James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2 1924 and raised in Harlem New York City the oldest of nine children. His mother Emma Berdis Jones gave birth to James while she was single. He never met his biological father and may never have even known his identity. Instead he considered his stepfather David Baldwin as his father. David a factory worker and a storefront preacher who was a lay preacher in the HolinessPentecostal sect. When Baldwin was a toddler David Baldwin who would prove to be the bane of young Jame's existence married his mother. Thoughnbspnbspadopted by David Baldwin James never felt a sense of security or belonging in that family. He thus grew up in Harlem which he described as a southern community displaced in the streets of NewYork under extremely trying circumstances growing up poor and unhappy in an environment of rigorous religious observance and dire poverty especially after his mother's marriage to this domineering fundamentalist minister from New Orleans who seemed to hate him. The relationship between the youngster and his stepfather a strict disciplinarian who showed James little love. served as a constant source of tension during Baldwin's formative years and informs some of his best mature writings. . . . Baldwin displayed much care inspite of it all serving as the caretaker for his eight younger siblings. The demands of caring for younger siblings and his stepfather's religious convictions in large part shielded the boy from the harsh realities of Harlem street life during the 1930s. nbspnbspnbspAs he cradled babies in his arms he read avidly borrowing initially from the two Harlem public libraries and later from the Fortysecond Street New York Public Library. One of the works that would prove significant for his later critical development was Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin 1852 which he had read so many times by the fifth grade that his mother moved it to a shelf beyond his diminutive reach. Later Baldwin would cri

• published: 16 May 2015
• views: 0