James baldwin biography timelines
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James Baldwin
American writer and political activist (1924–1987)
This article is about the American writer. For other people with the same name, see James Baldwin (disambiguation).
James Arthur Baldwin (néJones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an African-American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain has been ranked by Time magazine as one of the top 100 English-language novels.[1] His 1955 essay collection Notes of a Native Son helped establish his reputation as a voice for human equality.[2] Baldwin was an influential public figure and orator, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.[3][4][5]
Baldwin's fiction posed fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures. Themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class intertwine to create intricate
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James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a writer and civil rights activist who is best known for his semi-autobiographical novels and plays that center on race, politics, and sexuality.
James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York, in 1924. He was reared by his mother and stepfather David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher, originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. During his early teen years, Baldwin attended Frederick Douglass Junior High School, where he met his French teacher and mentor Countee Cullen, who achieved prominence as a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Baldwin went on to DeWitt Clinton High School, where he edited the school newspaper Magpie and participated in the literary club.
In 1948, feeling stifled creatively because of the racial discrimination in America, Baldwin traveled to Europe to create what were later acclaimed as masterpieces to the American literature canon. While living in Paris, Baldwin was able to separate himself from American segregated society and better
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James Baldwin and Britain
1949
1955
James Baldwin visits London to try and stage his first play "The Amen Corner" and to seek a publisher for "Giovanni's Room", a groundbreaking work exploring gay male love set in Paris.
At the end of the year, the British publisher Michael Joseph accepts "Giovanni’s Room" for publication after it is rejected by Baldwin’s U.S. publisher Knopf.