← Back to explore
Biography
James Arthur Baldwin was an African-American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son, explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, and their inevitable if unnameable tensions.
Awards & recognition
- VH1 Trailblazer Honors · 2018
- honorary doctorate from the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis · 1982
- Langston Hughes Medal · 1978
- George Polk Award · 1962
- Guggenheim Fellowship · 1954
Show all 6 awards →
- Commander of the Legion of Honour
Filmography15 titles
Bobby Kennedy for President
2018as Self (archive footage)
2018as Self (archive footage)
Madame X
2021as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2021as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
I Am Not Your Negro
2016Writer
2016Writer
Malcolm X
1992Screenplay
1992Screenplay
Explained
2018as Self (archive footage)
2018as Self (archive footage)
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1970as Self (archive footage)
1970as Self (archive footage)
Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris
1971as Self
1971as Self
The New Yorker at 100
2025as Self (archive footage)
2025as Self (archive footage)
If Beale Street Could Talk
2018Novel
2018Novel
The Statue of Liberty
1985as Self - Writer
1985as Self - Writer
Baldwin's Nigger
1968as Self
1968as Self
The Dick Cavett Show
1968as Self - Guest
1968as Self - Guest
Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
2022as Self (archive footage)
2022as Self (archive footage)
James Baldwin: From Another Place
1973as Self
1973as Self
Go Tell It on the Mountain
1984Novel
1984Novel