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 Zaborowskas 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 (19241987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public lifeand whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwins many incarnationsson of Harlem, Black icon, great twentieth-century writer, race man, prophet, witnesshave reemerged in the digital age as Baldwins work becomes a touchstone for a new generation. It is the private, vulnerable, and messier Baldwinthe man behind the prophet and the online memewho is the focus of this book. Magdalena J. Zaborowska draws on Baldwins archives and material legacyfrom his unpublished papers to his books to his house in Franceto offer a fresh look at the writers understated and obscured private life. Taking a cue from Baldwins 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 Baldwins 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 Baldwins development of a unique worldview, Black queer humanism, premised on African diaspora aesthetics, resilience, joy, community, internationalism, activism, and justice.
