James Baldwin : the life album / Magdalena J. Zaborowska.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zaborowska, Magdalena J., author.

Series:

Black lives and liberation.

Black Lives Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.

Baldwin, James.

African American authors--Biography.

African American authors.

Authors, American--20th century--Biography.

Authors, American.

Genre:

Biographies

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2025]

Summary:

An intimate portrait of James Baldwin, offering a new understanding of his life and works as seen through his close relationships and private life "Baldwin authority Zaborowska's gracefully impassioned biography. . . . A creatively conceived appreciation for a decorated life and its far-flung influences on race, queer culture, and art."-- Kirkus Reviews James Baldwin (1924-1987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public life--and whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwin's many incarnations--"son of Harlem," "Black icon," "great twentieth-century writer," "race man," "prophet," "witness"--have reemerged in the digital age as Baldwin's work becomes a touchstone for a new generation. It is the private, vulnerable, and messier Baldwin--the man behind the prophet and the online meme--who is the focus of this book. Magdalena J. Zaborowska draws on Baldwin's archives and material legacy--from his unpublished papers to his books to his house in France--to offer a fresh look at the writer's understated and obscured private life. Taking a cue from Baldwin's own love of the blues, Zaborowska presents his biography as a series of tracks on a vinyl record, introducing, developing, and remixing the themes and relationships from his life. She recounts episodes from Baldwin's troubled childhood, his struggles with sexuality and gender, his intimate relationships, and the overlooked influence of women, Jews, and queers on his writing. This Life Album revolves around Baldwin's development of a unique worldview, "Black queer humanism," premised on African diaspora aesthetics, resilience, joy, community, internationalism, activism, and justice.

Contents:

Introduction: I thought I'd hit the jackpot!

Side A. Overture ; In my mother's kitchen ; Sissy boys don't belong ; At the blackboard

Side B. Through the door of my lips ; The prince and his spiritual father ; Letters to Jewish editors ; A lover's kiss is a very strange event

Side C. Because my house fell down and I can't live there no more ; I am all those strangers and a woman, too ; Traveling through the country of the self ; The houses of Baldwin

Side D. Coda chez Baldwin

Chronology.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780300281637

0300281633

OCLC:

1498567932