Author

James Baldwin was born in 1924 at Harlem, New York, during the civil-rights struggle for blacks in which he got involved in due to that he was black himself. James has quoted that he never really had a childhood because of his stepfather working all the time, leaving James stuck with raising his eight half brothers and half sisters. The only freetime he had was to read, which destined his future into that of being a writer. Baldwin's first short story was published in a church newspaper at age twelve. Even though his parents wanted him to focus on religion, in which he became a preacher at age fourteen, Baldwin continued his interest in literature. Countee Cullen, an African American poet, encouraged Baldwin as they both attended the same high school with Baldwin as the student and Cullen as the teacher during his junior year. With the support from Cullen, he wrote poetry and was involved in the school magazine. Finally, when he was insipired by the success of Richard Wright's novel //Native Son,// that proved an African American can have success as a writer, Baldwin dropped being a preacher and dedicated his life to that of writing.


 * Worked at odd jobes while writing and reading in spare time, specifically writing book reviews and essays that were published in several New York hournals. Some of these articles were later combined into a single book //Notes of the Native Son// (1955).
 * Moved to Europe when he won a fellowship and wrote. Also lived in Paris for the next four years, completing his first novel, //Go Tell It on the Mountain// (1953).
 * Other works include //Giovanni's Room// (1956), //Another Country// (1962), //The First Next Time// (1963), and //Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone// (1968); a play set in the American South called //Blues for Mr. Charlie// (1964); a compilation of short stories titled //Going to Meet the Man// (1965); and a collection of several essays. These are part of the many works he published, before he finally died in 1987.