James Baldwin

James Baldwin (1924 - 1987) was an African-American novelist, probably best known for his novel Go Tell it on the Mountain[?]. Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the United States. Much of his work is informed by his homosexuality.

Baldwin's father, David Baldwin, was a preacher and a former slave; James was the first of nine children. Baldwin left the United States in 1948 to live in Paris, where Richard Wright, whom Baldwin called "the greatest black writer in the world for me", had moved earlier. Wright and Baldwin were friends, and Baldwin titled a collection of essays Notes of a Native Son[?], in clear reference to Wright's enraged and despairing novel Native Son.

Selected works

• The Amen Corner
• The Fire Next Time
• Go Tell It on the Mountain
• Notes of a Native Son
• Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son
• The Price of the Ticket