Nobody Knows My Name [Paperback]

James Baldwin is quoting a woman, upon the death of Richard Wright, concerning his novel, Native Son (Vintage classics) The same sentiment can be used to describe this collection of essays by James Baldwin. It really was a different era, archaic to us now, before Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, back when segregation, de facto or legal, was very much the rule in America. Most of the essays discuss events in the late `40's or `50's, and underscore how far we have come, now that we have elected the first American black president, but also how many other issues, particularly those related to power, remain much the same. A few years after the Second World War, Baldwin, driven by no doubt the same forces that sent Wright there, sought solace in voluntary exile in France.

Baldwin starts his first essay by quoting from the quintessential author of the white elite, Henry James, on what it means to be an American. Baldwin goes on to describe that only when he was in France, and had some perspective on the matter, did he realize that he also was an American. His second essay concerns the first black writer and artist conference, held in Paris in 1956, when almost all the participants were still literally coming from colonies. It was billed as a "second Bandung" a reference to the conference that was held in that Indonesian city in 1954 that commenced the "non-aligned movement," the Third World countries who wished to neither join the American or Soviet blocs. In other essay he has returned to America, and gives his views on the development of Harlem (and it is not positive.)

He also conducts some brilliant interviews, taking his first trip to the South, and interviewing the white principal of the school which had just commenced de-segregation with its first black pupil. The pupil is also interviewed, as well as his parents. In another interview he goes to Stockholm, and interviews film director Ingmar Bergman.

In other essays he addresses the relationships he had with some of the literary figures of the era, certainly including his "mentor," Richard Wright, and the eventual alienation from him that was never closed. He also had an on again, off again relationship with Norman Mailer, and was truly stunned when Mailer seriously ran for the position of Mayor of New York. He was dubious of Wright's friendship with Sartre and de Beauvoir, who he thought were using him as so much "window dressing." He has rather scathing comments to make about William Faulkner, who saw so much, but not enough, alas, and pushed his "Middle Way" on desegregation, and Jack Kerouac, who spoke of wandering through the "colored sections" of Denver, and imagining the "ecstasy" of being black. Baldwin said: "Now, this is absolute nonsense, of course, objectively considered, and offensive nonsense at that: I would hate to be in Kerouac's shoes if he should ever be mad enough to read this aloud from the stage of Harlem's Apollo Theater."

I could go on, but fortunately there is an excellent review of this book posted by D Cloyce Smith that gives additional insights. Baldwin remains relevant today, to indicate the distance we have traveled; he "ages" quite well, within his final resting place high on the hill, overlooking the Mediterranean, at St. Paul de Vance. We can only speculate on what he'd think seeing Blacks so fully integrated into media images, and how a certain segment of America has now decided to demonize Muslims. Even though this is not his greatest work, and his homosexuality will only come out in those, he still deserves the full 5-stars for this collection of early essays.

(Note: Review first published at Amazon, USA, on August 24, 2009)