Overview

An intimate portrait of James Baldwin, offering a new understanding of his life and works as seen through his close relationships and private life ""Baldwin authority Zaborowska's gracefully impassioned biography. . . . A creatively conceived appreciation for a decorated life and its far-flung influences on race, queer culture, and art.""—Kirkus Reviews James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public life—and whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwin's many incarnations—""son of Harlem,"" ""Black icon,"" ""great twentieth-century writer,"" ""race man,"" ""prophet,"" ""witness""—have reemerged in the digital age as Baldwin's work becomes a touchstone for a new generation. It is the private, vulnerable, and messier Baldwin—the man behind the prophet and the online meme—who is the focus of this book. Magdalena J. Zaborowska draws on Baldwin's archives and material legacy—from his unpublished papers to his books to his house in France—to offer a fresh look at the writer's understated and obscured private life. Taking a cue from Baldwin's own love of the blues, Zaborowska presents his biography as a series of tracks on a vinyl record, introducing, developing, and remixing the themes and relationships from his life. She recounts episodes from Baldwin's troubled childhood, his struggles with sexuality and gender, his intimate relationships, and the overlooked influence of women, Jews, and queers on his writing. This Life Album revolves around Baldwin's development of a unique worldview, ""Black queer humanism,"" premised on African diaspora aesthetics, resilience, joy, community, internationalism, activism, and justice.

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9780300288704

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Reviews

“The biography of today recoils from stuffing its subject into a straitjacket of interpretation. . . . Instead we find an emphasis on the fragility and provisionality of identity, on performance, on motive being mysterious and many-tentacled. ‘Baldwin seemed to be composed of carefully crafted personae, woven like armor,’ Zaborowska writes. (Such tact in that ‘seemed.’)”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times Magazine “Baldwin authority Zaborowska’s gracefully impassioned biography of the queer author and activist’s life and legacy. . . . A creatively conceived appreciation for a decorated life and its far-flung influences on race, queer culture, and art.”—Kirkus Reviews “Written with élan by a leading scholar on the life and work of James Baldwin, Zaborowska’s fresh study is a gripping portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most insightful writers.”—Douglas Field, author of Walking in the Dark “Zaborowska not only produces one of the richest pictures of James Baldwin’s personal and professional lives ever written, but also, she boldly dives into the debates surrounding the ways that images of James (Jimmy) continue to be both used—and abused.”—Robert F. Reid-Pharr, New York University

“The biography of today recoils from stuffing its subject into a straitjacket of interpretation. . . . Instead we find an emphasis on the fragility and provisionality of identity, on performance, on motive being mysterious and many-tentacled. ‘Baldwin seemed to be composed of carefully crafted personae, woven like armor,’ Zaborowska writes. (Such tact in that ‘seemed.’)”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times Magazine “Baldwin authority Zaborowska’s gracefully impassioned biography of the queer author and activist’s life and legacy. . . . A creatively conceived appreciation for a decorated life and its far-flung influences on race, queer culture, and art.”—Kirkus Reviews “A major contribution to freedom-loving people everywhere.”—George Lipsitz, author of The Danger Zone Is Everywhere “Written with élan by a leading scholar on the life and work of James Baldwin, Zaborowska’s fresh study is a gripping portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most insightful writers.”—Douglas Field, author of Walking in the Dark “Zaborowska not only produces one of the richest pictures of James Baldwin’s personal and professional lives ever written, but also, she boldly dives into the debates surrounding the ways that images of James (Jimmy) continue to be both used—and abused.”—Robert F. Reid-Pharr, New York University

“The biography of today recoils from stuffing its subject into a straitjacket of interpretation. . . . Instead we find an emphasis on the fragility and provisionality of identity, on performance, on motive being mysterious and many-tentacled. ‘Baldwin seemed to be composed of carefully crafted personae, woven like armor,’ Zaborowska writes. (Such tact in that ‘seemed.’)”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times Magazine “Baldwin authority Zaborowska’s gracefully impassioned biography of the queer author and activist’s life and legacy. . . . A creatively conceived appreciation for a decorated life and its far-flung influences on race, queer culture, and art.”—Kirkus Reviews “A major contribution to freedom loving people everywhere.”—George Lipsitz, author of The Danger Zone Is Everywhere: How Housing Discrimination Harms Health and Steals Wealth “Written with élan by a leading scholar on the life and work of James Baldwin, Zaborowska’s fresh study is a gripping portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most insightful writers.”—Douglas Field, author of Walking in the Dark “Zaborowska not only produces one of the richest pictures of James Baldwin’s personal and professional lives ever written, but also, she boldly dives into the debates surrounding the ways that images of James (Jimmy) continue to be both used—and abused.”—Robert F. Reid-Pharr, New York University

Author Information

Magdalena J. Zaborowska is professor and chair of the Department of American Culture and professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. She is the author of several books, including Me and My House: James Baldwin’s Last Decade in France.

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