Synopses & Reviews
James Baldwin was one of America's finest and most influential writers. By the time he died in 1987, his books, such as
The Fire Next Time, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and
Giovanni's Room, had become modern classics.
James Campbell knew Baldwin for ten years before Baldwin's death. For this book, he interviewed many of Baldwin's friends and examined several hundred pages of correspondence. He quotes from the vast and disturbing file that the FBI compiled on Baldwin and he discusses Baldwin's sometimes turbulent relationships with Norman Mailer, Richard Wright, and Marlon Brando, as well as his friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. Elegantly written, candid, and original, Talking at the Gates is a comprehensive account of the life and work of a writer who believed that "the unexamined life is not worth living."
Synopsis
"Campbell's biography is scrupulously researched and also uncovers new material about Baldwin's life and offers a well-argued case for a re-reading of Baldwin's oeuvre. Campbell knew Baldwin well, but his affection for the man has not dulled his critical pen. When I first met Baldwin he referred me to Campbell as the man to talk to if I wished to know more about his life and work."and#151;Caryl Phillips, author of The Atlantic Sound
Synopsis
This is a fluid and honest biography about the novelist, playwright, and essayist James Baldwin. Campbell's eagerly awaited new afterword analyzes thousands of pages of newly released FBI documents on Baldwin which came from their surveillance of him.
About the Author
James Campbell is the author of This Is the Beat Generation: New York, San Francisco, Paris (California, 2001), Exiled in Paris: Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett and Others on the Left Bank (1995), and Invisible Country: A Journey through Scotland (1990). He works for the Times Literary Supplement.
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Author's Note
Acknowledgements
I. No Story, Ma
II. Lord, I ain't No Stranger Now
III. A Severe Cross
IV. Tear This Building Down
V. The Price of the Beat
Afterward to the 2002 Edition
Abbreviations Used in Notes
Notes
Bibliography
Index