James Baldwin's Birthday
Next: August 2, 2027
Born to tell the truth.
The story
Where it comes from
James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York, on 2 August 1924, and this Story marks his birthday. The eldest of nine children, he helped his mother raise his brothers and sisters, and as a teenager he preached in a small revivalist church. He began publishing essays and reviews in the 1940s and in 1948, at 24, moved to Paris. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), drew on his Harlem childhood, and his clear, searching prose on race in America made him one of the most important voices of the 20th century.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, so the best way to mark the day is to read him. Try one of the essays in Notes of a Native Son (1955), or Go Tell It on the Mountain, the short novel about a 14-year-old boy in a Harlem storefront church. Reading a page aloud is a good way in: he was a preacher before he was a writer.
Did you know
- Besides novels, essays and plays, he published a book of poems, Jimmy's Blues, in 1985.
- From 1969 he called himself a 'transatlantic commuter', living between the south of France and the United States, with long stays in Turkey.
- His friend Maya Angelou, whom he first met in Paris, wrote that he was 'born for truth'.
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