James Baldwin: Escape from America, Exile in Provence - Hardcover

Farber, Jules

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1455620947 ISBN 13: 9781455620944

Publisher: Pelican Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

The life and influence of Jimmy in Saint-Paul de Vence.

Composed of more than 70 interviews with some of the many people who encountered James Baldwin in the last 17 years of his life, this revealing retrospective provides an intimate look into one of America’s greatest literary figures. Baldwin escaped from the racism and hatred in America to find solace and self-exile in Saint-Paul de Vence. In his time there, Baldwin became a beloved neighbor and friend to the locals of the village and hosted many guests from around the world in his grand bastide. Legendary celebrities, such as Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Bill Wyman, and others, tell their personal reminisces and stories about Baldwin.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

“The high ramparts of Saint-Paul seem protective in enclosing this Baldwin country, his fiefdom, his literary legend and his humanity, while the winding cobblestone streets still echo his legend.”
—from the author’s note

From 1970 until his death in 1987, James Baldwin lived a self-imposed exile in Saint-Paul de Vence, France. He fled from the hatred and racism of America in order to realize his true literary potential and repair his personal life. As a gay black activist, he sought to escape FBI shadowing and harassment ordered by director J. Edgar Hoover, as well as violent attacks and betrayal by fellow black literary figures who unloaded their venom on him. This period of Baldwin’s life served as his own personal liberation from the cultural and societal oppression he felt as a black writer in the US.

Composed of more than seventy interviews, the book explores “life with Jimmy” through personal reminiscences of well-known artists, writers, and celebrities, such as Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Angela Davis, Sol Stein, Herb Gold, George Wein, Maya Angelou, Bill Wyman, Caryl Phillips, Colm Toibin, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Nicholas Delbanco, Toni Morrison, and many others.

In addition to these remarkable figures, the author interviewed locals in Saint-Paul de Vence—friends, neighbors, lovers, doctors, and business owners—all of whom “adopted” Baldwin into their lives. These intimate recollections revel in the many aspects of Baldwin: his charismatic personality, his literary inspiration and subsequent recognition, his celebrity status, his many lovers, and even his shortcomings.

This objective retrospective pays homage to the value and significance of Baldwin in terms of America’s literary consciousness and his influence on young, black American writers. More importantly, this profile of Baldwin’s time in Saint-Paul de Vence reveals the man behind the myth.

Jules B. Farber, an American journalist and author, graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor of literary letters in journalism. While living in the Netherlands, he contributed articles to American publications and wrote four books, in English and Dutch. In recognition of his work, he received the prestigious William the Silent Prize by the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the best articles published in the American press about the Netherlands. Since moving to Provence, France, he has written three more books—all published in French and English, and one in German—and continues to publish in American and international media.

Jack Lang has had a long, impressive career in French government affairs as a prominent member of the Socialist Party. He was a member of the National Assembly for a total of fourteen years, first as a député from the Loir-et-Cher region and later as a député from the Pas-de-Calais region. During his tenure, he was also a member of the Commission of Foreign Affairs. Lang has been Minister of State for Education and two-term Minister of Culture. Currently, he is president of the Arab World Institute, as well as president of the Association for the Development of the Centre Pompidou, both in Paris. Lang was a longtime friend of James Baldwin.

From the Back Cover

“To anyone who has known James Baldwin, personally or through his writings, James Baldwin: Escape from America, Exile in Provence is a must-read. Learning what so many friends thought and felt about Jimmy is a revelation. You will get a meaningful glimpse of what it was like for Jimmy Baldwin to spend the last years of his career in the French village of Saint-Paul de Vence.”
—George Wein, jazz promoter and producer

“Jules Farber here performs a genuine service—bringing back to vivid life the voice of an artist long dead. The feel of the house in Saint-Paul de Vence is almost unbearably tactile, and the ghosts whisper and rustle and raise their filled glasses again.”
—Nicholas Delbanco, author of The Years

While visiting Saint-Paul de Vence, author Jules B. Farber happened to see a picture of writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin in the halls of La Colombe d’Or, an iconic hotel and restaurant there. When Farber asked the waiter about the photo, the waiter nonchalantly replied, “Jimmy was in the family here.” This exchange spurred Farber’s fascination with Baldwin and the seventeen years he spent in Saint-Paul de Vence.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pelican Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1455620947
• ISBN 13: 9781455620944
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312