James Baldwin (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

David Leeming knew and worked with James Baldwin for the last twenty-five years of the writer’s life, and that intimacy has helped him to produce a biography that gets beneath the celebrity to the writer and the man. Leeming accurately sees Baldwin as an Old Testament prophet, as a biblical witness or “voice in the wilderness.” Baldwin’s “essays stand out as among the most articulate expressions we have of the human condition in his time,” Leeming argues, and Baldwin’s three plays, six novels, and many short stories create “parables to illustrate . . . the words of his essays.” Leeming also portrays the private Baldwin, a man who sought love unsuccessfully throughout his life, and who suffered terrible bouts of loneliness for most of it.

Leeming shows that all of Baldwin’s works—drama, fiction, essays— are connected by characters and themes: in GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN (1953) and ANOTHER COUNTRY (1962) as well as in NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME (1961) and THE FIRE NEXT TIME (1963). Leeming claims that Baldwin’s novels are “best described as modern parables—or segments of a long parable.” Baldwin’s essays establish him “not only as a reliable commentator on racial conditions in America but as a witness to the whole dilemma of what it meant to be American in the context of those conditions.” His interest in both, in fiction and nonfiction alike, “was always in the inner workings of people.” Baldwin’s best novels and short stories are psychological studies of social problems; his best essays get inside the minds and hearts of all Americans, white and black.

Leeming’s biography is not without its limitations. Because he did not have the authorization of the Baldwin family, he is not able to quote from letters and manuscripts, which leaves a hole at the center of this book. On the other hand, Leeming’s friendship with Baldwin renders him, especially at the end of his life, in living detail. Moreover, Leeming’s perceptive analyses as a literary critic provide a number of valuable insights into individual literary works, as well as an accurate overview of Baldwin’s oeuvre. His generous selection of photographs from Baldwin’s life adds detail to this life.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. XC, March 1, 1994, p. 1138.

The Christian Science Monitor. May 10, 1994, p. 15.

The Economist. CCCXXXI, June 18, 1994, p. 97.

Essence. XXV, July, 1994, p. 46.

Kirkus Reviews. LXII, February 15, 1994, p. 202.

Library Journal. CXIX, April 1, 1994, p. 98.

The Nation. CCLVIII, May 2, 1994, p. 596.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIX, May 15, 1994, p. 30.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLI, February 28, 1994, p. 67.

The Times Literary Supplement. June 17, 1994, p. 13.