Hi everyone,
As you know, I will be presenting on the James Baldwin mss. on Thursday and wanted to introduce the mss. before then. They are a collection of letters between Baldwin and William Rossa Cole, the publicity director at Knopf and an editor at Simon & Shuster, and one of Jimmy's good friends. The letters range from 1951-1959, although there is a letter near the end of the mss. that is speculatively dated 1975. The majority of the letters are by Baldwin to Cole with the exception of a few where we get to see Cole's responses.
I will flag some letters I want you all to look at. One is a very lengthy nine page typewritten letter Baldwin wrote to Cole telling him about his childhood and being a writer. You do not have to read the letter in its entirety, but I would like you to skim it enough in order to compare it to the other pages I will flag. This letter has a very different feel from the rest and I want to investigate how it is different from the other, seemingly mundane, correspondences about finances and Baldwin's work.
The larger theme I want everyone to think about when reading these letters is the idea of the private and public persona. Sometimes we think of letters as a personal exchange between two people, yet, can letters be used to create one's public persona? As you will see in these letters, Baldwin is vastly invested in his image. He has a very distinct way that he carries himself, which is very collected and highly intelligent, but in his correspondence with Cole, we can see how particular he is with how he wants to be portrayed in the public.
Another thing I was curious about while reading over these manuscripts was how Baldwin rarely mentions anything about his sexuality to Cole. It was no secret that Baldwin was a gay writer during his time and although he does speak about race in these letters, the other important aspect of himself is not written about. Baldwin's work talks about the intricacies and intersections between race, religion, sexuality, and class, yet in these letters, the last few themes seem to be absent. Do you think this is a way for Baldwin to present a certain type of persona to Cole or is there another reason?
I will try to get these letters on hold in the reading room today. If not, they will certainly be available tomorrow. See everyone in class!
-Ly
Very nice way of posing the central questions about this letter, which is just an incredible document. Regarding the question about his homosexuality: Baldwin's letter enacts what it is about, that is, the impossibility of defining who he is in other than ironical terms, or as the nexus of forces that complicate who he is. So, in my opinion, he doesn't use this statement to define himself but instead talks about how difficult it would be to define himself. In other words, since he doesn't, in this document, answer the question who he is but instead infinitely defers it, it would be hard to fault him for leaving things out, for not speaking "the truth" about who he is.
ReplyDelete