When I received my reviewer’s advanced copy of Nicholas Boggs’ epic biography of James Baldwin, “Baldwin: A Love Story,” several months in advance of the Aug. 19 publication date, I was determined to have my review prepared at the time of the book’s arrival.
Somewhere on this page, the date will reveal that I’m a month late, and it’s the book’s fault because I’ve been reading it for over five months and only just finished it.
“Baldwin: A Love Story” is not the first Baldwin biography by any means, but it rests on a particularly ingenious and fruitful framing, the story of James Baldwin’s life as told through the lens of his relationships, the people to whom he gave his heart.
At times, the posthumous image of Baldwin threatens to turn him into a kind of resistance politics mascot, as clips of him dressing down white conservatives (and liberals!) on some black and white talk show circulate via social media. Of course, Baldwin is quotable. He is inspiring, and he seems to have had a truly special gift for zeroing in on hypocrisy and injustice with just the right words.
But deep down, he was a writer, an artist, and “Baldwin: A Love Story” is an exploration of how a boy born in the most desperate poverty in a country that denied his rights and opportunity can become an enduring legend.
“Baldwin: A Love Story” is structured chronologically around four “books” plus an interlude, each book titled after the most important love at any given time, “Beauford” for Beauford Delaney, “Lucien” for Lucien Happersberger, “Engin” for Engin Cezzar and “Yoran” for Yoran Cazac.
Not all of these “loves” were physical relationships, but in Boggs’ hands, we see the ways these loves sustain Baldwin at different times in his life. Delaney was older, a painter and Greenwich Village bohemian who invited a teenage Baldwin into a world of artists and fellow weirdos that would provide the fuel to ultimately get him out of America, and to Paris. In Paris, Baldwin immersed himself in the expatriate counterculture, mostly broke, often desperate, but also trying his hardest to understand and harness his drive to speak about and to the world.
Happersberger was a Swiss teenager, Baldwin’s first deep romantic love, who took him to a small mountain village where they could be two people in love, and where Baldwin could have the physical and emotional respite necessary to complete his first novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”
The two reasons it took so long to read the book are that it is quite long — over 600 pages before the endnotes — but more so because Boggs’ storytelling and analysis had me turning back to read the work Baldwin was doing at the times Boggs was discussing it.
The book is simultaneously a description of the life of the artist, and an exegesis of his writing as reflected in Baldwin’s life.
The sourcing is heavily weighted toward Baldwin’s own papers and therefore skews toward his version of events, which leaves it open to some of Baldwin’s own self-mythologizing, including a story about how he manipulated his old friend Marlon Brando into “loaning” him money to get back to the States from France.
But this sympathy and skew toward its subject takes nothing from the pleasure of reading the book nor the insights Boggs delivers. The project was born out of love, initiated with Boggs’ desire to republish Baldwin’s out-of-print children’s book, “Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood,” which illustrated Yoran Cazac had illustrated.
There’s no harm in telling a story from your place of passion.
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Good Dirt” by Charmaine Wilkerson
2. “Mark Twain” by Ron Chernow
3. “The Master” by Colm Tóibín
4. “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy
5. “Excellent Women” by Barbara Pym
— Marda L., Skokie
I want an English novel for Marda, but one she might not think of herself, “Harvest” by Jim Crace.
1. “Entitlement” by Rumaan Alam
2. “The Tell” by Amy Griffin
3. “Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World” by Anthony Doerr
4. “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett
5. “Real Americans” by Rachel Khong
— Kate W., Oak Park
For Kate, a feel-good novel, “The Lager Queen of Minnesota” by J. Ryan Stradal.
1. “Same as It Ever Was” by Claire Lombardo
2. “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore
3. “Behold the Dreamers” by Imbolo Mbue
4. “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout
5. “The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong
— Paula M., Albuquerque, New Mexico
It’s been a while since I recommended one of my all-timers, but it’s perfect for Paula, “Mrs. Bridge” by Evan S. Connell.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.