Is james baldwin gay
History
Through his writing, televised appearances, and public speaking here and abroad, author and civil rights activist James Baldwin (1924-1987) became a critical voice for the Black civil rights movement and brought attention to racial issues in the United States. He took part in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Release and the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, for example, and wrote about the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the sit-ins, and other civil rights events taking place in the South.
Baldwin’s experiences with racism in this country led him to live most of his adult life as a self-described “transatlantic commuter.” While he lived primarily in France, he often featured New York, including his native Harlem, in his work and resided in a number of apartments here. From 1958 to 1961, for example, he lived at 81 Horatio Street in Greenwich Village. In 1965, at the height of his fame, he moved into a remodeled rowhouse at 137 West 71st Street on the Upper West Side, which he used as his Unused York City residence until his death. He lived in the rear, ground-floor apartment, and his family, including his mother, sister, a
Review - James Baldwin: A Biography by David Leeming
Was James Baldwin REALLY bisexual?
I can’t count how many times I’ve seen author, civil rights activist, journalist, essayist, and all-around lion of literature James Baldwin called male lover. Gay same-sex attracted gay. Always lgbtq+. You perceive , except for all the women he loved, slept with, or almost married that you never hear about *eyeroll*
So I picked up his official biography, James Baldwin: A Biography, written by his longtime friend David Leeming to get to the truth. And the reality is that James Baldwin was a VERY complicated human.
There is no doubt his writing was genius. He was smart, ardent, and had a way of writing that could uplift the reader. He was bold and wrote about topics that no one else wanted to touch, even when they alienated the white publishing industry or respectable dark leaders.
But Baldwin also struggled with depression, was terrible with money, often drank way too much, and could throw melodramatic temper tantrums that oten alienated friends and fellow artists. He attempted suicide several times early in his
James Baldwin's Search for a Homosexual Persona in his Novels
First Advisor
Nancy Porter
Date of Publication
9-27-1996
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.) in English
Subjects
Homosexuality in literature, James Baldwin (1924-1987) -- Criticism and interpretation
Physical Description
1 online resource (2, 116 p.)
Abstract
James Arthur Baldwin (1924- 1987) is one of the two major writers who have dared write about shadowy gay men and from a jet gay perspective. However, his fame as a racial spokesman and his insightful analyses of race relations in America tend to distract attention from the fact that he has been one of the most important homosexual writers of the twentieth century. Intolerance and homophobia among dark and white Americans often led to a misinterpretation or misevaluation of James Baldwin's novels. James Baldwin was very courageous to arrive out as a black homosexual scribe during the period of the Frosty War and the Civil Rights movement. However, his consciousness of racism and homophobia in the American society, and his difficult position of being a public figure and a spokesman for the Afro-Americans left its traces in his novels and influenced
Baldwin resisted sexuality- and gender-related labels, especially given that the names used to refer to those in same-sex relationships changed over time, and were often a product of pale privilege (e.g., “queer” was in vogue in the 1940s and then was replaced by “gay,” which is still widely used, and, in some circles, “queer” and “quare” are also common; Stonewall riot lore omitted the key presence of people of color and drag queens like Sylvia Rivera). Baldwin preferred to be taken for someone who chose love, no matter its recipient, the sentiment that is expressed most fully in his essays “Here Be Dragons” (1985) and “To Crush the Serpent” (1987), as well as his last unpublished act, The Welcome Table. During his early life, he had some relationships with women, both black and white, while in his later life his passion was directed toward men. Until the end, he was looking for a man with whom to settle down and establish a home and family. He has become a hero for some trans-activists, e.g., Janet Mock, who embraced his advocacy of androgyny and non-binary identities in his late works, especially “Here Be Dragons,” which was originally published in Playboy under the title, “Fr
As we are nearing the end of Black History Month, I find myself reading and listening to the words of James Baldwin. He became one of the most articulate voices of the Civil Rights Movement, yet it is hard to discover any description or discussion - in his have words - of his life as a lgbtq+ man. One could surmise that he describes some of his gay being in the novel Giovanni's Room, which can easily be dismissed as a work of fiction. We know that he met the man who became the love of his life, Lucien Happersberger, in Paris in 1949, when Lucien was 17 and James was 25. The fact that Lucien was white could have served as proof that, at least in Baldwin's thought, black men and light men could love each other. But unfortunately, Baldwin chose to remain in the closet, using references to "... my wife" and "... my gal, my children..." in his interviews. The truth is, the most significant female in his life was his mother, and the children he referred to were his nieces and nephews.
| Diana Sands |