Despite owning a typewriter, James Baldwin preferred to write longhand on a legal pad. As he explained to The Paris Review in 1984, “You achieve shorter declarative sentences.” [1]
James Baldwin was born James Arthur Jones to Emma Jones on 2 August 1924 in Harlem, New York City. His 19-year-old single mother was one of many who fled racial segregation and discrimination in the South and never revealed to him who his biological father was. Emma Jones raised her son alone until marrying Baptist preacher David Baldwin in 1927. Her son found him extremely strict. As the eldest of nine children, James took his role seriously, caring for and protecting his siblings in a household governed by the rigid rules of their father.
As a teenager, Baldwin found solace in literature, reading authors like Richard Wright and W.E.B. Du Bois, whose works would later influence his own writing. At 14, he became a preacher in his father’s church, but by the age of 18, he distanced himself from the church and began to seriously pursue his passion for writing.
In 1948, at the age of 24, Baldwin left the United States for Paris, seeking escape from the pervasive racial and sexual discrimination he faced daily. His debut novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), was met with critical acclaim, portraying the struggles of a young boy grappling with his identity within a religious Harlem family. The novel helped cement Baldwin’s reputation as a powerful literary voice and has since been recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest English-language novels of all time.
While in Paris, Baldwin engaged with a vibrant community of writers and thinkers, spending the next four decades abroad. During this period, he wrote and published much of his work, solidifying his place as one of the most influential American authors of the 20th century.
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