6 - Baldwin, Communitas, and the Black Masculinist Tradition

Summary

No. I've never seen one [a community of writers] in any case … and I don't think any writer ever has.

Interview with Jordan Elgrably and George Plimpton, 1984

Many articles in the house caught my attention, most notably the many paintings and pieces of sculpture, among them the colorful paintings of the late African-American expatriate painter Beauford Delaney, who had been one of Jimmy's best friends. There were two other pieces that I believed said very much about the political commitment of the man. One, a black pen-and-ink drawing of Nelson Mandela against an orange background, accompanied by a poem, was framed and hung over the dining-room fireplace, the most prominent place in the house. The other was an assemblage created by Jimmy's brother David in his honor.

Quincy Troupe, “Last Testament: An Interview with James Baldwin,” 1988

In evaluating and situating James Baldwin's career and life, one encounters several complexities and paradoxes; not coincidentally, the word “conundrum” recurs in his writings and interviews. As a writer whose life and art reflected so many conflicting and sometimes binary oppositions – Europe/America, heterosexual/homosexual, political/personal, black/white, male/ female, art/protest – he experienced conflicts as an isolated artist who simultaneously craved community. The epigraphic quotations attest to Baldwin's “divided” self, one that would reject the idea of “literary” community, but whose personal living space would render a cosmic link among an eclectic group of black men: artists, politicians, and blood brothers.