culture and African American people, but he understood that these categories were being used to police people in many cases, and to control them. Yes, historians have said that Baldwin was excluded from the Civil Rights Movement in large part because of his sexuality, but I think it’ s also important to remember, as I write in my book, that Malcolm X said something about this, which I think is just as true, which is that civil rights figures— the mainstream Civil Rights Movement to the March on Washington— didn’ t want Baldwin to give a speech in part because they didn’ t know what he was going to say …. They wanted a very specific nationbased message to be articulated. What they did was, instead of having him read it, they had Burt Lancaster get on stage and read his words, which was one of the strangest moments, in my opinion, in civil rights history.
Do you think his resistance to labels was a product of his time when it was less socially acceptable to be gay?
That’ s part of it. I think these terms have shifted in what they mean. The word“ queer” was an insult back then, but then it was taken up later and taught by queer theorists as a kind of positive thing, but also as a kind of expansive notion of identities that can’ t be categorized in these strict ways. So, it’ s understandable that some people think that queer is a good label for him. Who knows how he would have felt about it, but it helps explain some of his relationships. He also said that the word“ gay” wouldn’ t have meant anything to his lovers, and this is sort of true. He was involved with these men, who were predominantly heterosexual, who were often married to women. He became the father to their godchildren. In fact, this kind of yearning and desire for impossible love became part of his creative project. In a way, I think it mirrored his impossible love for America, which could not fully love him back because of the bigotry there.
This was all part of his kind of creative project that was both a personal element in his life and also a creative one, and a political one.
In today’ s world, where people are becoming more divided in their thinking, we’ re seeing hate crimes in the news. Do you think there are any lessons from Baldwin’ s messages about love that could help heal some of these societal wounds today?
Absolutely. Some people said that Baldwin became bitter later in his life. But if you really read his interviews, that’ s not true. He was actually very, very hopeful, if anything. I think we can turn to him for a kind of hope, but a kind of tough hope. He had this term,“ the dreadful weight of hope,” and I think that’ s interesting. I think we’ re scared almost now to be hopeful, because we feel that things are so dark and so dismal, there’ s a weight if you’ re feeling hopeful. But he would say that we must feel hopeful, but not in a kind of romanticized way or a simple way. Same thing with love; he doesn’ t have the saccharine notion of love. We must be hopeful with love towards other people, but a tough love, a love where we hold ourselves and each other accountable for the past and for our current actions. That’ s the real love for Baldwin, the love that is risky in that way. The love that is truth telling, the love that is about really helping us and the beloved to see themselves the way they can’ t see themselves. Remember, that’ s why he went abroad. That’ s why he went to France and to Istanbul, so he could reflect back on his beloved country, the United States, and see it for what it really was, and write these essays that exposed the realities of the failures of the country to kind of honor its democratic ideals. So, I think if we look to Baldwin both in terms of his own life but also what those life lessons mean for us today, politically in our shared humanity, that’ s what he was all about.
What can attendees expect at your talks at The Mount?
I really like to talk about the experience of writing this book and also how I came upon these incredible discoveries, like a love poem Baldwin wrote that had never been seen before. Tracking down Baldwin’ s last great love, going to the house in Corsica where he spent many months, where no Baldwin scholar had gone before— I went there with my mother, actually, and found this place where something really important in his life had happened to him that I won’ t give away. I also play video clips, very short ones. We just won the Audie Award for Best History / Biography, so instead of reading myself, I’ ll play a short clip of Ron Butler reading, where you hear him almost break into James Baldwin’ s voice when I quote from him. I would say it’ s a story-driven multimedia experience that people can really enjoy. n
Nicholas Boggs will speak at The Mount as part of its Summer Author Series, on Monday, August 17, at 4 p. m. and Tuesday, August 18, at 11 a. m. edithwharton. org
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May / June 2026 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 87