2. • Born in New York City, James Baldwin
turned to writing after an early career as a
boy preacher in Harlem's storefront
churches.
3. • He attended Frederick Douglass Junior
High School in Harlem and later graduated
from DeWitt Clinton High School, where
he was editor of the school magazine
4. SPECIAL EVENTS IN HIS LIFE
• He eventually became one of the most
prominent intellectuals of the CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT.
• His initial stance was that blacks should work for
equality peacefully, but as time progressed his
views became more MILITANT. He warned in
The Fire Next Time that American race relations
were in danger of reaching violent conclusions.
5. • Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain,
was published in 1953, and received critical
acclaim. Two years later, his first collection of
essays, Notes of a Native Son, again won
favorable critical acclaim. This was followed, in
1956, by the publication of his second novel,
Giovanni's Room. His second collection of
essays, Nobody Knows My Names, brought him
into the literary spotlight and established him as
a major voice in American literature.
7. • As a child, Baldwin found reading an avenue of escape
from poverty and insecurity
• His first story was published in a church newspaper at
the age of 12.
• Celebrated black writer Richard Wright became a mentor
and father figure to him
• Becoming increasingly frustrated with racism in America,
he moved to Paris in 1948 with $40 in his pocket
• He refused to be categorized as a "Negro author" or
"Gay author" but rather an American author
8.
9. • The writer James Baldwin once made a scathing
comment about his fellow Americans: "It is
astonishing that in a country so devoted to the
individual, so many people should be afraid to
speak."
– As an openly gay, African-American writer living
through the battle for civil rights, Baldwin had reason
to be afraid — and yet, he wasn't. A television
interviewer once asked Baldwin to describe the
challenges he faced starting his career as "a black,
impoverished homosexual," to which Baldwin laughed
and replied: "I thought I'd hit the jackpot."
