Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist. Baldwin was born in Harlem Hospital in New York City in 1924. His mother was unmarried and concealed the identity of Baldwin’s biological father. Three years after Baldwin’s birth, his mother married a Baptist preacher and laborer named David Baldwin. The couple had eight children, and James took his stepfather’s last name. James and his strict stepfather had a tumultuous relationship. David Baldwin disapproved of his son’s intellectual and artistic interests and friendships with white people.

Despite their differences, James followed his stepfather’s pathway toward preaching. In his early teens, Baldwin fulfilled the role of youth minister at Harlem Pentecostal Church. His experiences are documented in the semi-autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953). Baldwin’s preaching career was short-lived, but his sermons helped him to develop a rhetorical style that influenced his literary voice.

Baldwin had worked through his teenage years to help support the family. After he graduated from high school and lost his stepfather, Baldwin felt responsible for helping to care for his younger siblings. He worked long hours at physically- demanding jobs, including laying railroad tracks and operating a station in a meat-packing plant. World War II affected everything, including Harlem. Baldwin grew up during the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural explosion in the predominantly Black neighborhood that influenced the broader American landscape. Baldwin was surrounded by artists, poets, and thinkers who influenced his perceptions and ideas. The war, however, impacted the community, and he was a frequent target of racial and anti-gay bias. Baldwin later pointed out how white bias and hatred infiltrates all corners of society, and he argued that racial and sexual prejudice are intrinsically connected.

Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village and wrote during his free time. Greenwich Village was a hub for writers, artists, and jazz musicians. The bohemian culture of Greenwich Village allowed Baldwin to engage in sexual relationships with men. Baldwin met and developed a friendship with Richard Wright. Although the two authors would eventually disagree with one another’s approaches and end their friendship, Wright was an early supporter of Baldwin’s dream of becoming a writer and helped him to secure a fellowship. Baldwin’s success grew as his pieces appeared in national publications.

In 1948, Baldwin needed to escape the persistent racial and sexual discrimination of the United States. In a 1984 interview with The Paris Review, Baldwin explained that if he knew that if he stayed in America any longer, he would have been killed. Baldwin showed up in France with 40 dollars and no knowledge of French, but Paris offered him the chance to pursue his writing without feeling confined by the narrow identity imposed on him by many American readers.

Baldwin’s success skyrocketed during the nine years he lived in Paris. He befriended many people and moved around the city. Baldwin was widely published, although he remained poor. He famously criticized Richard Wright’s use of the genre of protest novel in the work Native Son. Baldwin’s 1955 collection of essays Notes on a Native Son criticized Richard Wright directly and explored several topics pertaining to racial discrimination and the Black experience in Europe and the United States during the time. During his stay in Paris, Baldwin also published Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, and The Amen Corner. Giovanni’s Room tells the story of an American man’s affair with an Italian man named Giovanni. Baldwin’s publisher told the writer that the book would ruin his career, but the book was positively reviewed.

As Baldwin heard more about the activists and artists committed to change in the United States, he felt that it was time for him to return. He became highly involved in interviewing activists of the civil rights movement and covering social, racial, and political topics relevant to the cause. He traveled to the Deep South for the first time in his life to interview social and political activists in Charlotte and Montgomery, Alabama. In 1961, Baldwin published Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son, a collection of essays covering his thoughts and experiences following his return from Europe. Baldwin was a prolific writer throughout his life, producing groundbreaking works such as The Fire Next Time, The Price of the Ticket, Blues for Mister Charlie, and Meet the Man.

Baldwin eventually returned to France, settling in the south of France in 1970. He lived there until he died of stomach cancer on December 1st, 1987.