James Baldwin: A Biography: Prophet on the Threshing Floor - Softcover

Leeming, David

4.31

1,041 ratings by Goodreads

9780140240993: James Baldwin: A Biography: Prophet on the Threshing Floor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140240993 ISBN 13: 9780140240993

Publisher: Penguin, 1995

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This is a biography of James Baldwin, author, one-time preacher and civil rights activist. He chose David Leeming, a close friend and colleague, to write his biography and granted him access to his correspondence. Leeming traces his life from his birth in Harlem in 1924, his self-imposed exile in Europe, his later years as political activist to his public funeral in 1987.

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Review:

The best literary biography I’ve read in a long time. An engrossing narrative.” Leon Edel

The most revealing and subjectively penetrating assessment of Baldwin’s life yet published.” The New York Times Book Review

The first Baldwin biography in which one can recognize the human features of this brilliant, troubled, principled, supremely courageous man.” Boston Globe

Loving but honest . . . [Baldwin] wrote, No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it,’ and . . . Mr. Leeming shows so well [the price he paid].” The New York Times

Intimate, artful and major . . . An exceptional literary biography deserving wide promotion and readership . . . [by] a personal friend of the great novelist and essayist.” Booklist

Highly perceptive, revealing.” Publishers Weekly

About the Author:

David Leeming, emeritus professor of English at the University of Connecticut, was a friend of James Baldwin for twenty-five years as well as his assistant from 1963 to 1967. He is also the author of several works on world mythology, including The World of Myth: An Anthology and Medusa: In the Mirror of Time. He lives in Rhinebeck, New York.

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