Colm Tóibín weaves his own history of reading James Baldwin, beginning with Go Tell It on the Mountain at eighteen, into a critical and biographical account of Baldwin's fiction, essays, and public life — his novels, his years in Paris and Harlem, his friendships and rivalries with writers like Richard Wright and Norman Mailer, and his civil-rights-era encounters with figures such as Robert Kennedy and Malcolm X.
Books mentioned in On James Baldwin (61)
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin: “I read James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain just after my eighteenth birthday”
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin: “James Baldwin's second novel Giovanni's Room, published in 1956, was, like Forster's Maurice, written in a time when homosexuality was not merely forbidden...”
Maurice by E. M. Forster: “like Forster's Maurice, written in a time when homosexuality was not merely forbidden or disapproved of, but also strangely invisible”
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin: “he brought, he wrote in "Notes of a Native Son," "a special attitude" to lofty company”
De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: “Oscar Wilde's De Profundis was written under strange circumstances”
Another Country by James Baldwin: “In his review of James Baldwin's third novel, Another Country, Lionel Trilling asked...”
A Question of Identity by James Baldwin: “In his essay "A Question of Identity," written in 1954, James Baldwin wrote about the Paris that would inspire Giovanni's Room”
Everybody's Protest Novel by James Baldwin: “the following year Baldwin published an essay in Zero called "Everybody's Protest Novel"”
The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: “Joseph Conrad created his doubled characters in "The Secret Sharer"”
Ulysses by James Joyce: “When Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses is asked what a nation is, he replies...”
Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin: “One story is called "Going to Meet the Man," and the other is "Sonny's Blues."”
Alas, Poor Richard by James Baldwin: “as Baldwin wrote in his essay "Alas Poor Richard," "and I could not possibly have been more wrong"”
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin: “It was called Black Like Me, written by a progressive journalist, John Howard Griffin”
Man of All Work by Richard Wright: “We are back in the world of Richard Wright's story "Man of All Work"”
The Ambassadors by Henry James: “Henry James's novel The Ambassadors, for example, published in 1903, is set in a Paris that allows the middle-aged Lambert Strether to live as though for the first time”
The Schooner Flight by Derek Walcott: “In Derek Walcott's poem "The Schooner Flight," his protagonist is "either nobody, or I'm a nation"”
Choosing a Mast by Roy Campbell: “One of the other set of lines my mother would say out loud comes from the South African poet Roy Campbell: This mast, new-shaved, through whom I rive the ropes...”
High Tide in Harlem by Richard Wright: “In 1938 Richard Wright wrote "High Tide in Harlem," an article about Joe Louis, for the left-wing magazine New Masses”
The Rockpile by James Baldwin: “"The Rockpile." In Going to Meet the Man”
Black Boy by Richard Wright: “This passage by Wright appears in the "restored edition" of Black Boy: I was leaving the South to fling myself into an unknown...”
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver: “Cleaver, in his book Soul on Ice, published in 1968, had no difficulty identifying the problem”
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama: “Later, in his book The Audacity of Hope, he describes his wife Michelle's admission on a flight back from Kenya to Chicago”
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama: “In Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama described finding religion in Chicago, hearing about the history of the Black church in America”
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin: “Two years later, he published two long essays in a book with the title The Fire Next Time”
The Return of Eva Peron by V. S. Naipaul: “Naipaul's long essay on the dictatorship in Argentina, "The Return of Eva Peron"”
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway: “The opening chapters of Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises, published in 1926, also take place in Paris”
Black No More by George S. Schuyler: “Black No More, by the African American writer and journalist George S. Schuyler”
Blue Nights by Joan Didion: “listed alongside Salvador and The Year of Magical Thinking as Didion works discussed”
Native Son by Richard Wright: “Baldwin focuses his attention on Richard Wright's novel Native Son and the protagonist Bigger Thomas”
Salvador by Joan Didion: “And Joan Didion's book Salvador might have been helped by more research”
The Golden Bowl by Henry James: “Giovanni's Room, like Henry James's late novel The Golden Bowl, inhabits fictional space that is heavily circumscribed”
The Jolly Corner by Henry James: “Henry James created his divided figures in "The Private Life" and "The Jolly Corner"”
Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin: “Baldwin's book on the child murders that occurred between 1979 and 1981 in Atlanta, Evidence of Things Not Seen, is slack and rambling”
Advertisements for Myself by Norman Mailer: “Mailer's Advertisements for Myself and Marilyn: A Biography are not quite readable now, their egotism bloated and out of control”
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin: “One story is called "Going to Meet the Man," and the other is "Sonny's Blues"”
The Outing by James Baldwin: “Baldwin's first dramatization of homosexuality occurs in his story "The Outing," published in 1951”
The Stone Face by William Gardner Smith: “The Stone Face, William Gardner Smith's novel, looks like a panorama beside Baldwin's tiny canvas”
Cuchulain Comforted by W. B. Yeats: “Yeats wrote a poem called "Cuchulain Comforted," which began with a series of statements free of metaphor”
As Much Truth as One Can Bear by James Baldwin: “In "As Much Truth as One Can Bear," a New York Times Book Review article from January 14, 1962... Baldwin wrote about private loneliness”
Notes for a Hypothetical Novel by James Baldwin: “In an essay written in 1960 called "Notes for a Hypothetical Novel," Baldwin mused on the White people he met in downtown New York”
The Harlem Ghetto by James Baldwin: “In 1948 when Baldwin published the essay "The Harlem Ghetto" in Commentary, his earliest piece for a national magazine”
The Lost Art of Letter Writing by Eavan Boland: “Eavan Boland published a poem in the New Yorker called "The Lost Art of Letter Writing." It was about Irish emigrants writing home”
The White Problem by James Baldwin: “In an essay called "The White Problem," published in 1964, Baldwin sneered at the icons of White America”
To France by Countee Cullen: “Cullen... wrote a poem "To France" in which he made clear the sense of freedom that he felt there”
This Morning, This Evening, So Soon by James Baldwin: “In a story published in 1960, "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon," James Baldwin wrote about the relationship between Harriet... and the narrator”
To the Western World by Louis Simpson: “Or the four final lines of Louis Simpson's "To the Western World": In this America, this wilderness...”
American Hunger by Richard Wright: “In his second autobiography American Hunger, Richard Wright wrote even more forcefully about the disillusion”
Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson: “With his brother, he wrote "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which became an anthem for Black Americans”
I Chose Exile by Richard Wright: “In an unpublished 1951 essay, "I Chose Exile," Richard Wright wrote: "To live in Paris is to allow one's sensibilities to be nourished by physical beauty"”
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway: “his reputation began to be unassailable at the very instant that his work began that decline from which it never recovered—at about the time of For Whom the Bell Tolls”
Riverside Drive by Louis Simpson: “In 1962, Simpson, who was born in Jamaica in 1923, published a novel called Riverside Drive, which used elements of his own life”
Black Manhattan by James Weldon Johnson: “In 1930, when Baldwin was six, James Weldon Johnson published his book Black Manhattan”
The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer: “Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night and his Miami and the Siege of Chicago, both works of imaginative and original political reporting, may equal his best novel, The Executioner's Song”
Miami and the Siege of Chicago by Norman Mailer: “Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night and his Miami and the Siege of Chicago, both works of imaginative and original political reporting”
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer: “may equal his best novel, The Executioner's Song”
Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin: “In the essay "Nobody Knows My Name: A Letter from the South," Baldwin notes that, as he was preparing to set out, he was cautioned by a friend”
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion: “listed among Didion's works discussed alongside Salvador and Blue Nights”