James Baldwin: The Life Album by Magdalena J. Zaborowska An intimate portrait of James Baldwin, offering a new understanding of his life and works as seen through his close relationships and private life. James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public life—and whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwin’s many incarnations—“son of Harlem,” “Black icon,” “great twentieth-century writer,” “race man,” “prophet,” “witness”—have reemerged in the digital age as Baldwin’s work becomes a touchstone for a new generation. It is the private, vulnerable, and messier Baldwin—the man behind the prophet and the online meme—who is the focus of this book.