The poet, playwright, author and Civil Rights activist is among the 20th century’s most important and influential writers
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“An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realise the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are. He has to tell, because nobody else can tell, what it is like to be alive.”– James Baldwin
As a queer Black man born in America during the 1920s, James Baldwin experienced much hatred and discrimination. A novelist, essayist, playwright and poet, from the start he used writing to explore and challenge difficult themes, both personally and socially. His first novel, 1953’s Go Tell It On The Mountain, tackled both religion and his own troubled upbringing, while the second, 1956’s Giovanni’s Room, explored the taboo subject of homosexual romance. Perhaps most notably, time and again he used his pen as a means to confront what he called the “racial nightmare” that plagued America. Yet Baldwin’s legacy is far more than just his words. He worked alongside the Civil Rights movement, participated in the 1963 March on Washington, travelled extensively, taught and lived life to the fullest.
Pick up the latest All About History issue to read our full feature on the life and writings of James Baldwin.
Here are five of Baldwin’s most memorable literary works.
Giovanni’s Room
1956
Baldwin’s second novel was controversial for its tackling of homosexual themes. The novel concerns David who, after his girlfriend leaves for Spain, is left alone in Paris. He begins a relationship with an Italian-bartender called Giovanni but the romance ultimately ends in tragedy as David is unable to reconcile his own feelings.
Image credit: Penguin Classics


No Name in the Street
1972
Baldwin’s fourth memoir reflects on the assassination of Martin Luther King, his immense grief at the loss and his own feelings regarding the Civil Rights movement. He also covers a variety of other influential figures and moments including Malcolm X, Francisco Franco, the Marches for Freedom and McCarthyism.
Image credit: Penguin Classics
If Beale Street Could Talk
1974
Set in Harlem, If Beale Street Could Talk is both a romance and a tale of suffering and heartbreak. It tells of the developing love story between a young Black woman, Tish, and a young Black man, Fonny. However, tragedy occurs when a corrupt police officer falsely accuses Fonny of rape.
Image credit: Penguin Classics


Just Above My Head
1979
Baldwin’s last novel is an epic tale of the life of a group of friends and returns to some of the themes of his earlier works. Covering 30 years, the friends begin preaching in Harlem churches but must undergo a maelstrom of war, violence and incest, all while witnessing historical events such as the struggle for civil rights.
Image credit: Penguin Classics
Evidence of Things Not Seen
1985
One of Baldwin’s final works, The Evidence of Things Not Seen is an essay that focuses on the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979-81. However, Baldwin also probes deeper, examining racial issues in the area and in the United States as a whole.
Image credit: Picador

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