Author James Baldwin was born in 1924
James Baldwin was born on this day in 1924 in Harlem New York City. Baldwin would become a celebrated author whose characters often sought acceptance into society. He included gay and bisexual men as characters in many of this works.
Baldwin wrote essays, plays, and novels, often embracing themes relating to race, masculinity, sexuality and class. His first novel Go Tell It On The Mountain was released in 1953 and is largely autobiographical focusing on the role of the Pentecostal church in the lives of African Americans.
Baldwin’s second novel Giovanni’s Room was released in 1956 and tells the story of an American man living in Paris and exploring the city’s gay bars. It is credited with prompting more widespread discussion about sexuality, and was released several years before the Stonewall riots.
The author continued to feature gay and bisexual characters in his following books including Another Country (1962) and Tell Me How Long The Trains Been Gone (1968).
In the 1960’s Baldwin was a prominent contributor to the civil rights movement and later wrote about his book length essay No Name in the Street which reflected on his friendships with Sidney Poitier, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X and Medgar Evans – who were all assassinated.
Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk was adapted into a film in 2018. During his life Baldwin was friends with Nina Simone, Marlon Brando, Jean Genet, Toni Morrison, Miles Davis, Richard Avedon, Jean-Paul Sartre and many other leading creative and literary figures.
He died in Paris in 1987 after battling stomach cancer. He has been cited as one of the most important writers of the 2oth century.
In June 2019 he was one of inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers and heroes” inducted on the the USA’s National LGBTQ Wall of Honour within the Stonewall monument.
Author William Burroughs died in 1997
As an author Burroughs was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major post-modern author who had a big effect on popular culture. Prior to publishing his first novels, Burroughs lived a life that took him to many countries, and several incidents with the law.
While studying English and Anthropology at Harvard University, he would travel to New York on the weekends an explore lesbian dives and piano bars in Harlem and the homosexual underground in Greenwich Village.
In the 1930’s Burroughs moved to Europe and attended medical school in Vienna. Here he delved into the Weimar-era LGBT culture and spent time picking up young men in the city’s steam baths. Here he met Ilse Klapper, a Jewish woman fleeing the Nazi government, though never romantically involved Burroughs married Klapper so she could escape to the USA. The pair divorced soon after but remained friends for many years.
He joined the army during World War II signing up in 1942, but a year later he was living in New York where he developed a drug addiction that followed him for the rest of his life. Here he made friends with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, their work as poets and writers would become central to the foundation of the Beat Generation and 1960’s counter-culture movements.
In 1944 Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer, she already had a daughter from a previous relationship, and soon the couple added a son to their family. Both Burroughs and Voller struggled with mental health and drug addiction. After spending time in Louisiana and Texas, the couple moved to Mexico to avoid Burroughs being sent to prison after he caught forging a doctor’s prescription for drugs.
Once in Mexico Burroughs and Volmer from all accounts had an unhappy life, free of heroin his libido returned and he was pursuing other men, while Volmer became an alcoholic. One night in as Mexico City bar Burroughs pulled a revolver from his bag and told Vollmer it was time to do their ‘William Tell’ act. There was no indication the couple had ever previously performed the act – Vollmer balanced a highball glass on her head, and Burroughs fired the pistol at her, shooting her in the head and killing her almost instantly.
While awaiting trial in Mexico Burroughs wrote what would later become the novel Queer. Before he got to trial his lawyer, who had his own legal problems, ran away. Burroughs also decided to skip out on the trial and the country. He was convicted in absentia of homicide.
Next Burroughs spent several months in South America searching for a drug called yage, which reportedly gave users telepathic abilities. His letters correspondence with Ginsberg during this time formed The Yage Letters which was published in 1963 – it was later revealed the letters were mostly fictional.
In 1953 Burroughs’ first book Junkie was published. Later Queer was published. The author relocated to Tangiers in Morocco where he spent four years writing his next work The Naked Lunch.
The novel would be acclaimed for it’s unconventional style, but also faced challenges from authorities who ruled it’s blunt depictions of homosexuality and drug use. In Massachusetts Burroughs was prosecuted for producing obscenity, but the court ruled the work not obscene.
Finding success in the 1960’s Burroughs spent time living in Paris and London before retuning to the USA in the 1970s. In the early 1980’s he relocated to Kansas. Among his novels are The Soft Machine, Nova Express, The Ticket Exploded and Wild Boys.
Acclaimed a literary genius by critics, Burroughs also inspired many musicians, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, Tom Waits, Patti Smith and Genesis P-Orridge all cited as a hero.
In his latter year Burroughs often collaborated with musicians, he made the album Seven Souls with Bill Laswell, collaborated with Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on another, worked with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Kris Novoselic, REM, Yellow Magic Orchestra and electronic band Spring Hell Jack.
Burroughs novels have often be described as unfilmable, but a few of his works have been adapted for the screen.
In the 1980’s director Russel Mulcahy planned to created film version of The Wild Boys, and Duran Duran even created a song for the project. The film never eventuated and instead Mulcahy created the concert film Arena with the band that included narrative elements and drew upon the film Barbarella which was the source of the band’s name.
In 1991 director David Cronenberg directed a film adaptation of Naked Lunch, starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm and Roy Scheider. It was a failure at the box office, but got critical acclaim and became known as a cult classic.
Director Luca Guadagnino had more success with his 2024 adaptation of Queer which starred Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and Jason Schwartzman and Lesley Manville.
William Burroughs died on 2nd August 1997, aged 83, having suffered a heart attack the previous day.
Photograph of James Baldwin by Allan Warren published under Creative Commons 3.0 SA.
This post was originally published on 2nd August 2020 and has been updated.
