Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood - Hardcover

Baldwin, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 147800004X ISBN 13: 9781478000044

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2018

Synopsis

Four-year-old TJ spends his days on his lively Harlem block playing with his best friends WT and Blinky and running errands for neighbors. As he comes of age as a “Little Man” with big dreams, TJ faces a world of grown-up adventures and realities. Baldwin’s only children’s book, Little Man, Little Man celebrates and explores the challenges and joys of black childhood.

Now available for the first time in forty years, this new edition of Little Man, Little Man—which retains the charming original illustrations by French artist Yoran Cazac—includes a foreword by Baldwin’s nephew Tejan "TJ" Karefa-Smart and an afterword by his niece Aisha Karefa-Smart, with an introduction by two Baldwin scholars. In it we not only see life in 1970s Harlem from a black child’s perspective, but we also gain a fuller appreciation of the genius of one of America’s greatest writers.

About this title

About the Author:

James Baldwin (1924–1987), the world-famous novelist, playwright, essayist, critic, and public intellectual, was the grandson of a slave. He grew up in Harlem and was the oldest of nine children. He spent three years while in his teens as a preacher and briefly worked on the New Jersey railroad. In the 1940s he met his mentor, painter Beauford Delaney, and moved to Greenwich Village. In 1948 he left the United States and moved to Paris. His first novel—Go Tell It on the Mountain—was published in 1953, and over the next ten years he wrote many essays and several of his best-known works, including Notes of a Native Son, Giovanni’s Room, and The Fire Next Time. During the 1960s Baldwin split his time between Istanbul and the United States, where he was active in the civil rights movement. In 1971 he moved to Saint Paul-de-Vence, a village in the south of France. There he wrote, among other works, Little Man, Little Man, which he dedicated to Beauford Delaney; and the novel If Beale Street Could Talk, which he dedicated to Yoran Cazac.

Yoran Cazac (1938–2005) was a French artist who first gained attention for his abstract paintings in Paris in the 1960s. He moved to Rome, where he became the protégé of the painter Balthus, director of the French Academy. Cazac met Baldwin in Paris in 1959 through their mutual friend, painter Beauford Delaney. They rekindled their friendship in the 1970s, when Baldwin asked Cazac to provide the illustrations for Little Man, Little Man. Baldwin contributed an essay for the catalog of Cazac’s 1977 exhibition at the Chateau de Maintenon. Cazac's final solo exhibition was held at the Kiron Gallery in Paris in 2003.

Nicholas Boggs is Clinical Assistant Professor of English at New York University.

Jennifer DeVere Brody is Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University.

Tejan Karefa-Smart, James Baldwin’s nephew, is a photographer and digital media artist who lives in Paris, France.

Aisha Karefa-Smart, James Baldwin’s niece, is an author who lives in Washington, D.C.

Review:

"Pulled from the past, this is a brilliant exploration of black childhood with profound emotional depth, drawn from the grace and struggles of community and reinforcing the truth that no one knows Harlem like Baldwin." (Kirkus Reviews 2018-06-15)

"You’re getting everything through Baldwin’s keen insights and distinctive voice. And it really is a beautiful read. The descriptions alone are worth the price of admission.... I think that maybe this is the book that kids need today.... [T]he book has aged amazingly well.... A new classic. Looks like the world finally caught up with it at last." (Elizabeth Bird School Library Journal 2018-05-21)

"French artist Cazac’s scribbly-line spreads and vignettes, tinted with watercolor, seem charged with electricity. Through luminous prose and fine observation, readers come to care deeply about TJ and his friends, and they’ll wish their story didn’t end so soon." (Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) 2018-06-22)

 "At 42, Little Man, Little Man has aged well. What might have been permanently dismissed . . . has instead matured into a timely representation of an urban African American childhood, presented in 'the black vernacular style of [Baldwin's] Harlem neighborhood,' made accessible once more to eager new audiences." (Terry Hong Shelf Awareness 2018-07-11)

“Now that we have a children’s book, we can start people off even younger. It’s a book that young people can read or have read to them, but it’s also a new Baldwin for adults.”
  (Jacqueline Woodson, quoted in the New York Times 2018-08-20)

"The watercolor images of Harlem — which took shape from Baldwin’s recollections, filtered through a French artist’s imagination — have a dreamlike, impressionist quality that can be almost jarring when juxtaposed with the sometimes menacing elements TJ confronts in his neighborhood." (Alexandra Alter New York Times 2018-08-20)

"Written for his nephew and out of print for 40 years, Baldwin's account of 4-year-old TJ's life in Harlem retains its power to enchant." (People 2018-08-27)

"A vivid perspective that is both moving and enriching . . . It is a story of childhood, from a particular time and place, captured in colloquial language that is freighted at once with innocence, pain and tenderness." (Meghan Cox Gurdon Wall Street Journal 2018-08-23)

"A book to study and discuss at length. . . . The story’s profound depth stems from the implication that childhood innocence is a myth. Baldwin implies, as he does in his other work, that claiming innocence to racism (by adults and children alike) is a poor excuse for avoiding the difficult work required to grapple with it. Baldwin’s story of childhood forces the reader to grapple." (Jenny Gapp School Library Connection 2018-11-01)

"A must-read for fans of Baldwin, for those with interest in historical perspectives, and for those seeking a compelling story that will endure." (Ricki Ginsberg Unleashing Readers 2018-08-30)

About this edition

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 147800004X
• ISBN 13: 9781478000044
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 120
• Editor: Boggs Nicholas, Brody Jennifer DeVere
• Illustrator: Cazac Yoran