James Baldwin : A Biography - David Leeming (used)

Hardcover. Micheal Joseph. 1994. Good condition, first page torn out. 

James Baldwin, author, one-time holy roller preacher and civil rights activist, was one of the best writers to come out of America. Angry, provocative and courageous, he presented even his most passionately held views in his elegant and original style. His central theme of the plight of the black and, indeed, of any outsider, read as vividly as they did when he first wrote them.

David Leeming, a close friend and trusted colleague, was chosen by James Baldwin to write his biography. They worked together in Europe in the sixties and became good friends. Leeming had been granted exclusive access to much of Baldwin's correspondence in writing this book.

James Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924, the eldest of nine children in an impoverished family. David Leeming traces his life through his self imposed exile in Europe and his later years of political activity in America - which earned him a 1,700-page FBI file as a suspected communist. His funeral in 1987 was a major event and he was mourned all over the world as one of the leading literary figures since World War II.

Perhaps best known for his books The Fire Next Time, Giovanni's Room, and Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin was also a prophet with a message for all human beings, whatever their religion, class, colour or sexual preference. His preoccupation with political activities, particularly civil rights, at times overshadowed his writing and his own personal quest for fulfilment and happiness was doomed to failure by the demands of his public life.

David Leeming's biography provides an outstanding account of a major figure whose writings defined an entire generation of black American experience in the modern era