James Baldwin (Magill’s Choice: American Ethnic Writers)

Author Profile

At nineteen, James Baldwin left Harlem, the black section of New York City. He traveled across Europe and the United States, living for years in France, where he died at age sixty-three. More than any other place, Harlem shaped Baldwin’s identity. He never completely left the ghetto behind.

Baldwin returned often to Harlem to visit family. Much of his writing features the stores and streets of Harlem, in such essays as “The Harlem Ghetto” and “Notes of a Native Son,” in stories such as “Sonny’s Blues” and “The Rockpile,” and in such...

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