Loves that fueled the fire in James Baldwin

A little-known romance is revealed in a new biography of the famed writer.

- By Nicholas Boggs

ANTHONY BARBOZA Getty Images AMERICAN AUTHOR James Baldwin is known for his explorations of race, sexuality and identity while weaving his life and relationships into his writing.

In Nicholas Boggs’ lively and vigorously researched biography of James Baldwin, the great writer's search for the source ofhis art dovetails with his lifelong search for meaningful relationships.

Black, gay, born without the benefit of money or guidance, repeatedly harassed and beaten in his New York City hometown, Baldwin physically removed himself from the turmoil of America, living abroad for long stretches to find proper distance and see his country plain. In “The Fire Next Time,” “Another Country” and “Giovanni's Room,” among other works, Baldwin gleaned hard truths about the ways in which white people, white men in particular, deny their own sexual confusions to lash out at those who they feel may pose a grave threat their own machismo codes and their absolute dominion over Black Americans. In his novels and essays, Baldwin became a sharp beacon ofhard truths.

Baldwin was reared in an oppressive atmosphere ofreligious doctrine and physical violence; his stepfather David, a laborer and preacher, adhered to a quasiCalvinist approach to childrearing that forbade art’s graven images in the home and encouraged austerity and renunciation. Books, according to Baldwin's father, were “written by white devils.” As a child, Baldwin was beaten and verbally lashed by his father; his brief tenure as a religious orator in the church was, according to Boggs, away to “usurp his father at his own game.” At the same time, Boggs notes, Baldwin used the church “to mask the deep confusion caused by his burgeoning sexual desires.”