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James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues"

BIOGRAPHY

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[From The Norton Introduction to Literature]

(1924–1987)

For much of his life, James Baldwin was a leading literary spokesman for civil rights and racial equality in America.Born in New York City but long a resident of France, he first attracted critical attention with two extraordinary novels, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), drawing upon his past as a teenage preacher in the Fireside Pentecostal Church, and Giovanni's Room (1956), which dealt with the anguish of being black and homosexual in a largely white and heterosexual society; other works include the novels Another Country (1962) and If Beale Street Could Talk (1974), the play Blues for Mr. Charlie (1964), and a story collection, Going to Meet the Man (1965).Baldwin is perhaps best remembered as a perceptive and eloquent essayist, the author of Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Price of a Ticket (1985).

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In The Portable Intro to Literature
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