James Arthur Baldwin [ d͡ʒeɪmz ˈɑɹθɚ ˈbɒldwən], né le 2 août 1924 à Harlem, New York, et mort le 1er décembre 1987 à Saint-Paul-de-Vence, dans les Alpes-Maritimes, en France, est un écrivain américain, auteur de romans, de poésies, de nouvelles, de pièces de théâtre et d’essais. Son œuvre la plus connue est son premier roman, semi-autobiographique, intitulé La Conversion , paru en 1953, et sa nouvelle Blues pour Sonny incluse dans le recueil de nouvelles Face à l'homme blanc , paru en 1965.
Ses essais, rassemblés notamment dans Chronique d'un pays natal et La Prochaine Fois, le feu , explorent les non-dits et les tensions sous-jacentes autour des distinctions raciales, sexuelles et de classe au sein des sociétés occidentales, en particulier dans l'Amérique du milieu du XXe siècle. Ses romans et pièces de théâtre transposent quant à eux vers la fiction des dilemmes personnels, questionnant les pressions sociales et psychologiques complexes qui entravent non seulement l'intégration des personnes noires, mais aussi des hommes gays ou bisexuels. Il dépeint également les obstacles intériorisés qui empêchent de telles quêtes d'acceptation, par exemple dans son roman La Chambre de Giovanni , écrit en 1956, bien avant le mouvement de libération des homosexuels. Wikipedia
James Baldwin livre Notes of a Native Son
Stranger in the Village http://harpers.org/archive/1953/10/stranger-in-the-village/ Harper's Magazine (October 1953); republished in Notes of a Native Son http://books.google.com/books?id=B0N2AAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+betrayal+of+a+belief+is+not+the+same+thing+as+ceasing+to+believe+If+this+were+not+so+there+would+be+no+moral+standards+in+the+world+at+all%22&pg=PA171#v=onepage (1955)
"Letter from a Region of My Mind" in The New Yorker (17 November 1962); republished as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The Fire Next Time (1963)
James Baldwin livre The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time http://books.google.com/books?id=0S9TgXJ-aD0C&q=%22If+the+word+integration+means+anything+this+is+what+it+means+that+we+with+love+shall+force+our+brothers+to+see+themselves+as+they+are+to+cease+fleeing+from+reality+and+begin%22&pg=PA21#v=onepage (1963)
"A Negro Assays on the Negro Mood," The New York Times, 12 March 1961, published in book form as "East River, Downtown: Postscript to a Letter from Harlem" in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961)
“I conceive of God, in fact, as a means of liberation and not a means to control others.”
"In Search of a Majority" address delivered at Kalamazoo College (February 1960); republished in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961)
As quoted in "Trapped Inside James Baldwin" by Michael Anderson http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/reviews/980329.29anderst.html, a review of Baldwin's Collected Essays in The New York Times (29 March 1998)
"An interview with James Baldwin" (1961), in Conversations with James Baldwin, p. 21
"The Crusade of Indignation," The Nation (New York, 7 July 1956), published in book form in The Price of the Ticket (1985)
Interview with Julius Lester, "James Baldwin: Reflections of a Maverick" in The New York Times (27 May 1984)
James Baldwin livre Giovanni's Room
Pt. 2, Ch. 5 - p.139
Giovanni's Room (1956)
James Baldwin livre Giovanni's Room
Pt. 2, Ch. 3 - p.104
Giovanni's Room (1956)
“Maybe everything bad that happens to you makes you weaker, and so you can stand less and less.”
James Baldwin livre Giovanni's Room
Pt. 2, Ch. 3 - p.97
Giovanni's Room (1956)
From Nothing Personal, a collaboration with the photographer Richard Avedon (1964). Baldwin's text for the volume can be found " here https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=cibs".
