James Baldwin

James Baldwin was born in Harlem on August 2, 1924. His name at birth was James Arthur Jones. Baldwin never knew his father; his mother, who was originally from Maryland, was named Emma Burdis Jones. In 1927, she married David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher and factory worker from New Orleans with a twelve-year-old son, and thus the future writer received the last name that he was to make famous. Together the couple went on to have six children …

…He published a book of poetry, Jimmy's Blues in 1985. In the late part of his career, despite poor reviews, neglect, and a widespread assumption that his time had passed, he was a productive writer of fiction and especially nonfiction to the end of his life. When diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in early 1987, he remained cheerful and active, even hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family only days before his death on December 1, 1987.