Review: Baldwin's Harlem
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsA slender but sturdy life of the centrifugal author at home in New York. Baldwin was many things; consistent is not necessarily one of them. Boyd (Pound for Pound: A Biography of Sugar Ray Robinson, 2005) notes that Baldwin was "committed to black radicalism" and a fellow traveler of Malcolm X, yet not so committed to the cause as to endorse younger activists such as Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who returned the favor. We meet Cleaver as he and Baldwin were supposedly kissing at a 1967 dinner party in San Francisco, "a graphic contradiction of [Cleaver's] merciless attack on Baldwin's homosexuality, or an indication of his own deep-seated sexual ambivalence." Baldwin advocated racial rapprochement, telling Harlem schoolchildren, "Color doesn't matter. Color is a political reality which certain politicians use. There is no moral value to black or white skin." Yet he excused his vigorous anti-Semitism by saying that nearly all blacks in Harlem, after all, hated Jews: "We hated them because they were terrible landlords, and did not take care of the building." Baldwin, writes Boyd, was a student of Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen and was active in the small literary circle that succeeded the movement. Yet where Cullen was concerned with community-building, Baldwin seems to have thrived on feuds, such as a long-running one with Langston Hughes and, calculated to fuel anti-Semitic sentiments, another fierce one with Norman Mailer. Boyd traces those conflicts to their roots, delivering a refined sort of literary gossip ennobled by substance: We hear, for instance, of Henry Louis Gates's running argument with Baldwin over whether Harriet Beecher Stowe was a worthy writer, of Amiri Baraka's dismissal of Baldwin for not being a sufficient revolutionary and so forth. Less thorough than James Campbell's Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin (1991), but still of much interest to students of recent American letters.
Review: Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
User Review - Brandon Floyd - GoodreadsHerb Boyd approaches "Baldwin's Harlem" with far too much interest in himself and not enough commitment to his craft. In fact, there's hardly any sense of Baldwin here at all. Even as Boyd explicitly ... Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
User Review - Banole - GoodreadsHerb Boyd gives us a gossipy biography of Baldwin that somehow works. Boyd admits that he really didn't know Baldwin personally. Yet Boyd skillfully uses Baldwins writings and interviews with Baldwins ... Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
User Review - Ana - GoodreadsThe book is a very good read, I did want to get more of a sense of intimacy from the author about Baldwin, but still enjoyed it. Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
User Review - KL Dilley - GoodreadsI reeeeealllly couldn't get through this book. I should have been able to because it's about James Baldwin in Harlem. How could that not be captivating? Well it wasn't. Right in the intro Boyd comes across a bit Rick Warrenish and from there it went down an unfortunate road. Too bad. Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem
User Review - William Gargan - Library Journal vol. 133 iss. 4 p. 81Born in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin was raised and educated there at a time when the glories of the Harlem Renaissance were giving way to the dark days of the Great Depression. In his latest effort ... Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
User Review - Isabella Rodriguez - GoodreadsAt this moment in my life Balwdin is my inspiration. Interesting read. I learned a lot about the complicated, beautiful and torn being that was Baldwin. Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
User Review - Demetria - GoodreadsThis was the first (and so far only) James Baldwin bio I've ever read. I do know that a handful of very good Baldwin bios exist, so I thought this was a pretty worthwhile and unique perspective to ... Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
User Review - Bill - GoodreadsThe book is at its best describing Baldwin's conflicted relationship with his hometown Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. African American artists from other areas romanticized Harlem - for Baldwin ... Read full review
Review: Baldwin's Harlem
User Review - Publishers Weekly vol. 254 iss. 46 p. 51Although James Baldwin (1924–1987) left his native Harlem as a young man and returned only for occasional visits, the New York neighborhood was a recurring theme in his essays and novels, and critics ... Read full review
