James Baldwin
(1924-1987) African American novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet known to many as one of the best American thinkers in the 20th Century.
Popular quote:
"We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it." James Baldwin collection of essays, No Name in the Street.
He was born in Harlem in 1924. His mother married a Pentecostal Minister with him had seven other children younger than Baldwin. Baldwin had an early beginning with the joy of writing as he became the an editor for the Frederick Douglas Junior High School paper and literary club. The tragedy of losing his stepfather and the Harlem Riots in 1943 spurred Baldwin to work more diligently at his writing career. Baldwin used his writing as a means to communicate the injustice in America and help people see a way to make it better. He published his first essay, Nation in 1946. Later he published more essays such as New Leader, Commentary, and Partisan Review and his first book Go Tell it on the Mountain. He is best known for his works Notes of a Native Son, Nobody's Knows My Name, and The Fire New Time which established Baldwin as a prominent American writer.
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