WRITER

James Baldwin

1924 - 1987

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Icon of person James Baldwin

James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an African American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain has been ranked by Time magazine as one of the top 100 English-language novels. His 1955 essay collection Notes of a Native Son helped establish his reputation as a voice for human equality. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of James Baldwin has received more than 13,131,025 page views. His biography is available in 51 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 48 in 2019). James Baldwin is the 576th most popular writer (up from 1,298th in 2019), the 592nd most popular biography from United States (up from 1,634th in 2019) and the 56th most popular American Writer.

James Baldwin is most famous for his novels Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time.

Memorability Metrics

  • 13M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 65.79

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 51

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.55

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.79

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Notes of a Native Son
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
Originally published in 1955, James Baldwin's first nonfiction book has become a classic. These searing essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and Americans abroad remain as powerful today as when they were written. <br><br>"He named for me the things you feel but couldn't utter. . . . Jimmy's essays articulated for the first time to white America what it meant to be American and a black American at the same time." -Henry Louis Gates, Jr.<br><br>
19554 / 5
Go tell it on the mountain
Fiction
The electrifying first novel from James Baldwin, whose life and words are immortalized in the Oscar-nominated film I Am Not Your Negro 'I had to deal with what hurt me most. I had to deal with my father.' Drawing on James Baldwin's own boyhood in a religious community in 1930s Harlem, his first novel tells the story of young Johnny Grimes. Johnny is destined to become a preacher like his father, Gabriel, at the Temple of the Fire Baptized, where the church swells with song and it is as if 'the Holy Ghost were riding on the air'. But he feels only scalding hatred for Gabriel, whose fear and fanaticism lead him to abuse his family. Johnny vows that, for him, things will be different. This blazing tale is full of passion and guilt, of secret sinners and prayers singing on the wind. 'A beautiful, enduring, spirtual song of a novel' Andrew O'Hagan 'With vivid imagery, with lavish attention to details, Mr. Baldwin has told his feverish story' The New York Times
19533 / 5
Giovanni's room
1956
Another country
1962
The fire next time
1963
Blues for Mister Charlie
1964

Among WRITERS

Among writers, James Baldwin ranks 576 out of 7,302. Before him are Harry Martinson, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Jaroslav Seifert, Laurence Sterne, Denis of Portugal, and Sayat-Nova. After him are Ninon de l'Enclos, Władysław Reymont, Cassiodorus, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Osip Mandelstam, and Enid Blyton.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1924, James Baldwin ranks 28. Before him are Georges Charpak, Jovanka Broz, Ramiz Alia, Willard Boyle, Roger Guillemin, and Robert Solow. After him are Mário Soares, Sidney Lumet, Kōbō Abe, Black Dahlia, Lee Marvin, and Henry Mancini. Among people deceased in 1987, James Baldwin ranks 19. Before him are Walter Houser Brattain, Andrey Kolmogorov, Maria von Trapp, William P. Murphy, Pola Negri, and Lawrence Kohlberg. After him are Fahri Korutürk, Jascha Heifetz, Lino Ventura, Lee Byung-chul, Lee Marvin, and Jacqueline du Pré.

Others Born in 1924

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Others Deceased in 1987

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In United States

Among people born in United States, James Baldwin ranks 592 out of 20,380. Before him are Glen Campbell (1936), Linda Lovelace (1949), Gene Kelly (1912), John Belushi (1949), Robert Solow (1924), and Boris Johnson (1964). After him are Edward Adelbert Doisy (1893), Robert Kardashian (1944), Ellen Burstyn (1932), Sugar Ray Robinson (1921), Jack Kilby (1923), and Allen Ginsberg (1926).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, James Baldwin ranks 56. Before him are Tennessee Williams (1911), Richard Bach (1936), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804), T. S. Eliot (1888), Sidney Sheldon (1917), and William S. Burroughs (1914). After him are Allen Ginsberg (1926), Ellen G. White (1827), Theodore Dreiser (1871), Napoleon Hill (1883), John Irving (1942), and Louisa May Alcott (1832).

American born Writers

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