You’ ve spent a large part of your career studying the life and work of James Baldwin. This biography spans over 600 pages. Can you tell me about your process in putting the book together?
It’ s been a 20-year journey, and it didn’ t really begin as a biography. It began as an attempt to bring an out-ofprint children’ s book by James Baldwin back into print, Little Man, Little Man, which I discovered in college. Then I wrote to a bunch of art historians in Paris to find out if this Yoran Cazac artist was alive, and I was told that he was dead. But then a few weeks later, I got a phone call saying that, in fact, he was alive. He called me himself. So, I went over to Paris, and that began the process of bringing the book back into print, which happened in 2018. Then I realized as I was interviewing him and others, that there was actually a whole book here and that it was time for a new biography.
Why do you think James Baldwin continues to hold the public’ s interest decades after his first works were published, and what about his work and life speaks to you personally?
I think his writing stands the test of time, which is wonderful to see. I also think as folks like Eddie Glaude have written, the issues that Baldwin wrote about are so present with us today. He was writing about race, he was writing about gender, sexuality, about the world in an international frame. He lived all over the place, including Istanbul and France. So we had a perspective about the positive aspects of a global world, but also the more troubling aspects— the conflicts, the phobias that people have about people who seem other than themselves. I think all the ways that he was writing are very much with us today. Obviously, the Black Lives Matter movement took him up a few years ago. There were movies about him, documentaries, but also he’ s just a first-rate artist. His ability to tackle these issues and questions in the language that he had makes him a very, very important figure today. For me, personally, I grew up in Washington, D. C., the son of a civil rights lawyer. I went to D. C. public schools. I was in an English class in eighth grade, and a drawing of him was on the wall. I recently spoke to my English teacher. She told me that— and actually, I forgot this— I came in wearing a suit to my public school, and I gave a presentation on Baldwin’ s life. So, I guess I’ ve actually been working on this book for four decades.
Your book explores Baldwin’ s fear of love, both in his personal life and in race relations during the Civil Rights Movement. Do you think he was ever able to make peace with that fear?
Fear is an interesting word. Baldwin said that“ love is the only reality, the only terror, and the only hope.” I think that he was terrorized by love somewhat in the beginning— terrorized by his stepfather in a sense, who called him ugly. Terrorized also by his own desires, that he was afraid of his sexual desires for other men. As he was on this journey to self-love throughout his life, he came to realize that moving towards love, rather than fearing love, was crucial for his development as an adult, as an artist, but also politically. As he put it in The Fire Next Time, Black and white Americans had to come together like lovers. He was being metaphorical, but to really see each other and sort of change the world. For white Americans, this was a particularly fraught exercise because of this concept of innocence that he talks about. This false idea that white Americans haven’ t done anything wrong. If we erase history, we forget the history of this country— how it’ s founded, and the enslavement of Africans who were brought over here. This was a history that had to be faced, but it had to be faced with love and with truth, and this was Baldwin’ s great lesson.
Despite his fears, he had several long-term relationships, and his on-and-off partner, Lucien Happersberger, was there when he died. He also had an ability to hold the attention of a room. Why do you think people were so drawn to him?
Well, Baldwin grew up as a child preacher. His father was a preacher, and he grew up in the church and then became a famous preacher himself in Harlem, and so he was a performer. Yoran Cazac, his last, great love used to talk about how he was a performer, and one thing that he loved to do was watch Baldwin stand in front of a mirror and read from his novels. That’ s why you see him on YouTube giving these speeches, or talking with William Buckley or on The Dick Cavett Show. He’ s so magnetic as a public figure, which is ironic, in a sense, because he was sort of excluded from the Civil Rights Movement. The other thing, though, and what I tried to explore in my book is how this public image of Baldwin as this icon has obscured the fact that he was also a human being who went through these kinds of difficult loves, and these kinds of wonderful loves, as well, and that these relationships are actually the key to his creative process and the key to understanding his literary work. So yes, he’ s an important icon of the Civil Rights Movement, but he’ s also an incredible artist, and that was a conflict for him because he needed this isolation and also these relationships to create his art. So all of those elements were always in concert and somewhat in conflict throughout his life.
As you mentioned, he was excluded from the Civil Rights Movement, in large part because he was gay, is that right?
He’ s an interesting historical figure because he rejected the category“ gay.” And he rejected the category“ straight.” He rejected“ Black” and“ white,” rejected“ male” and“ female.” He was very proud of the African American