James Baldwin (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

Biography

James Baldwin was born in New York City on August 2, 1924. His mother, Emma Berdis Jones, was unmarried at the time, and his illegitimacy would haunt him throughout his life. In 1927, Emma married David Baldwin, a former slave's son who had come north from New Orleans filled with bitterness toward whites. David worked in factories, preached on weekends, and raised his ten children with iron discipline and little warmth.

James grew to hate his father for constantly criticizing and teasing him. As a teenager, he rebelled in many ways, first by becoming a Young...

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