James Baldwin
I have a question. When we discuss books and authors and people talk about their favorites, most folks on this blog say that Toni Morrison someone like that is their favorite author. I never hear James Baldwin mentioned. Is anybody a fan? I am and read all of his books when I was in high school, but haven't thought about them much until recently. Let me know. I'm just curious, if it's a southern thang or if I was interested in Baldwin because he was the black male author that I had the most access to growing up in Whitefolksville.
posted by FeLicia at 9:38 AM
3 Comments:
I'm going to be honest. I've never read any of his works. I'm a fiction guy mainly, so I would need the recommendation of a good novel that he wrote, as opposed to a collection of essays. Being from the same state as Richard Wright, he (Richard) is one of the people most of my friends have read. Knowing the falling out between Baldwin and Wright, I never really dug around in Baldwin's canon. I'm open to good suggestions though.
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN, ANOTHER COUNTRY AND TELL ME HOW LONG THE TRAIN'S BEEN GONE are three I remember reading. The first two left a good impression on me. His writing had that 'just left the south' feel to it. He seems to have fallen off the map after he died in 1983. He wrote essays, plays and was vocal during the Civil Rights movement. He was also openly gay and lived with his lover in France. When I pick up an anthology I don't see works by him When I read interviews with black authors, hardly any say he was an influence, it's usually Richard Wright or a black female author. So I was just curious to know if anyone else was a fan.
FeLicia
I'm going to have to check him out on my next trip to the bookstore. Thanks for the heads-up.
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