A new James Baldwin biography asks how the writer’s lovers might’ve shaped him

Summary

Podcast Summary: NPR’s Book of the Day

Episode: A new James Baldwin biography asks how the writer’s lovers might’ve shaped him
Host: Chloe Weiner (with guest Michelle Martin)
Guest: Nicholas Boggs (author of "A Love Story")
Date: October 22, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode features a conversation with author and scholar Nicholas Boggs, who presents his biography, A Love Story, about James Baldwin. The discussion revisits Baldwin's formative years in Harlem, his relationships—both platonic and romantic—and how those shaped his activism and literary legacy. Boggs urges readers to see Baldwin’s central message as one of a complex, risky, but ultimately transformative love, and positions his queer and Black identities as central to understanding his influence.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Baldwin’s Early Life and Influences

• Harlem Roots: The hosts and Boggs visit James Baldwin Place in Harlem, noting his family's frequent moves due to financial instability and being part of a large family (oldest of nine).
  • “Like a lot of people without money, you get kicked out of places you have to move.” (Michelle Martin, 01:47)
• Transformative Mentorship: Baldwin’s 5th-grade teacher, Bill Miller, recognized his intelligence and became a formative influence by exposing him to the arts.
  • “She took it upon herself to take him out and eventually she became part of the family.” (Nicholas Boggs, 02:17)
• Early Intellectualism: Baldwin found solace in reading at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library, now the Schomburg Center.
  • “He said that by the time he was like 15, he had read everything in the library. And so it was a sanctuary for him. And it was life changing.” (Nicholas Boggs, 02:36)

2. Baldwin as a Public Intellectual

• Media Presence and Influence: Baldwin’s 1963 Time magazine cover symbolized his stature during the civil rights movement.
• Cultural Network: His friendships spanned leading figures like Marlon Brando, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, and Harry Belafonte.
  • “When it came to black America, there’d never been anything quite like that in this country.” (Nicholas Boggs, 03:57)
• Sample of Baldwin’s Rhetoric: Archived audio from Baldwin illustrates his critique of American racial “innocence.”
  • “I don't want to be given anything by you. I just want you to leave me alone so I can do it myself.” (James Baldwin, 03:39)

3. Centrality of Love in Baldwin’s Thought

• Love as Liberation: Boggs highlights Baldwin’s grounding of his activism and writing in love—challenging, transformative, and necessary for liberation.
  • “His message was a message about love...only love will throw open the gates to liberation.” (Nicholas Boggs, 04:13)
  • “He thought that blacks and whites had to come together like lovers...and really excavate the past and the present, come to a kind of mutual recognition and understanding.” (Nicholas Boggs, 04:19)
• Facing America’s Past: Emphasizes Baldwin’s insistence on confronting, not erasing, the legacy of slavery and ongoing racial innocence.

4. Intersections of Race, Gender, and Sexuality

• Ahead of His Time: Although now termed “intersectionality,” Baldwin openly connected various forms of oppression, especially racism and homophobia.
  • “He talked about how race as a form of oppression doesn't live alone. It's connected to all these other forms of oppression around sexuality, around gender.” (Michelle Martin, 04:50)
• Sexual Identity: Baldwin saw confronting his sexuality as essential to his freedom as a writer and individual.
  • “He said, when he asked why he wrote Giovanni's Ruin, he said if I hadn't written this novel, I don't know if I could have ever written again...So this is how he kind of rejected these systems of domination in terms of these identities.” (Nicholas Boggs, 05:25)

5. Emotional and Creative Struggles

• Periods of Hardship: The hosts discuss moments when Baldwin struggled with publication, projects, and personal life, showing his humanity.
• Chosen Family and Love Across Borders: Forced by racism and homophobia to live abroad, Baldwin built a “kinship network” beyond blood relations—a core subject in Boggs’ book.
  • “He had to construct these alternative kinship structures. Right. So Jeuffer Delaney was his spiritual father then Lucien Habersberger, his first great love in Paris...they became like family.” (Nicholas Boggs, 06:28)
  • “He also provides a model for, like, a kind of expansive sort of erotic and platonic life with other people that can move in and out of these different iterations.” (Nicholas Boggs, 07:12)

6. Baldwin’s Enduring Legacy

• Legacy of Risky, Difficult Love: Boggs closes with Baldwin’s view that love is an ongoing struggle, both personally and for American society at large.
  • “It is a legacy of love. It's a difficult love, it's a risky love...He always said that love is a battle, love is a war, love is a growing up.” (Nicholas Boggs, 07:36)
  • “The journey that we're on now in America, just reclaim our humanity, is also going to be a battle and a war.” (Nicholas Boggs, 07:52)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Baldwin’s Early Genius:
  “And he was reading A Tale of Two Cities and so was she. And she was blown away by his intelligence.”
  (Nicholas Boggs, 02:09)

• On Confronting the American Past:
  “He said white Americans have to not pretend that they are innocent. The innocence constitutes the crime.”
  (Nicholas Boggs, 04:37)

• On Sexual and Racial Freedom:
  “You didn't tell me. I told you. That's what he said.”
  (Nicholas Boggs, 05:23)

• On the Risks of Love:
  “Love is a battle, love is a war, love is a growing up.”
  (Nicholas Boggs, 07:41)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Baldwin’s Harlem Origins & Key Mentor: 01:18 – 02:25
• Schomburg Center and Baldwin’s Reading: 02:25 – 02:47
• Public Intellectual & Media Celebrity: 03:05 – 03:57
• Baldwin on Love and Liberation: 04:13 – 04:50
• Intersectionality and Sexuality: 04:50 – 06:11
• Kinship, Love, and Creative Struggles: 06:11 – 07:34
• Legacy of Difficult Love: 07:34 – 08:07

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Conclusion

In this intimate conversation, Nicholas Boggs reframes James Baldwin’s public and private lives through the lens of love—romantic, platonic, and revolutionary. By centering the people who sustained Baldwin and the expansive, risky nature of his affections, Boggs urges us to see Baldwin not only as a crusader for racial justice, but as a model for forging authentic, loving ties across boundaries of identity. For listeners and readers alike, A Love Story promises a nuanced understanding of how love—difficult, complex, but necessary—shaped one of America’s greatest writers.

Transcript

[Michelle Martin]

Hey.

[Chloe Weiner]

This is NPR's book of the Day. I'm Chloe Weiner. James Baldwin was born more than a hundred years ago, but even today he remains a hot topic for writers and scholars, and for good reason. There are so many ways into Baldwin's work, and the author and academic Nicholas Boggs has a new perspective looking at how the writer and civil rights leaders, lovers shaped him. Boggs biography is called A Love Story, and in Today's conversation with NPR's Michelle Martin, he argues that Baldwin's legacy is love. Bogg says we should look to Baldwin in part as someone who provided an expansive model for how we relate to other people, both platonically and erotically. That's after the break.

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[Michelle Martin]

James Baldwin is asking us to read the celebrated writer and civil rights leader through a new lens. A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs centers Baldwin's male lovers along with his family and many friends in order to better understand him and his works. To learn about the book, we took a trip to Harlem, New York, where Baldwin was born, with author and scholar Nicholas Boggs.

[Nicholas Boggs]

Here we are at James Baldwin Place at 128th street and Fifth Avenue. He and his family moved around a lot in this area.

[Michelle Martin]

Like a lot of people without money, you get kicked out of places you have to move. Plus, they had a lot of kids in that house. He was what, the oldest of what.

[Nicholas Boggs]

The oldest of nine?

[Michelle Martin]

Nine, yes.

[Nicholas Boggs]

And I believe this is his school, P.S. 24 down here where he met Bill Miller. And she's the one who took him to see plays and movies and really changed his life.

[Michelle Martin]

How old was he when he was in her class?

[Nicholas Boggs]

10.

[Michelle Martin]

He was 10.

[Nicholas Boggs]

And he was reading A Tale of Two Cities and so was she. And she was blown away by his intelligence. But she also recognized that he wasn't being challenged in school because this was an overbooked school, too many students. So she took it upon herself to take him out and eventually she became part of the family.

[Michelle Martin]

Even just a few blocks from Baldwin's elementary school sits another cornerstone of his education, the Schomburg center for Research in Black Culture, which was expanded from the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library.

[Nicholas Boggs]

Well, he may have been exaggerating a little bit, but he said that by the time he was like 15, he had read everything in the library. And so it was a sanctuary for him. And it was life changing.

[Michelle Martin]

The Schomburg is now home to the James Baldwin Papers, a vast archive documenting Baldwin's career. Nicholas Boggs and I sat down for our conversation there. For people who aren't as familiar with James Baldwin as others might be, just situate him for us. Why was he such a towering figure?

[Nicholas Boggs]

James Baldwin's face was on the COVID of time magazine in 1963. Okay, sort of the height of the civil rights movement. So he, if for no other reason, he's important because he is a titan of that movement. He was the voice of black America. He was appearing on television all the time.

[Michelle Martin]

Here's James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett show in 1969.

[James Baldwin]

The word Negro in this country really is designed finally to disguise the fact that one is talking about another man, a man like you, who wants what you want. And insofar as the American republic wants to think there has been progress, they overlook one very simple thing. I don't want to be given anything by you. I just want you to leave me alone so I can do it myself.

[Michelle Martin]

He was what we called a public intellectual. I don't even know if we used that term back then, but he was what we'd call a public intellectual.

[Nicholas Boggs]

He was an absolute celebrity. I mean, he was best friends with people like Marlon Brando, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, you name it. I mean, he. When it came to black America, there'd never been anything quite like that in this country.

[Michelle Martin]

What was his message?

[Nicholas Boggs]

Well, his message was a message about love. And that is part of why that's the focus of this book. His message was that as he put it in the fire, next time, only love will throw open the gates to liberation. And he thought that blacks and whites had to come together like lovers, as he put it, and really excavate the past and the present, come to a kind of mutual recognition and understanding by really confronting the past, not erasing, not pretending that slavery and its legacies were somehow gone. And the concept that he used was, he said white Americans have to not pretend that they are innocent. The innocence constitutes the crime.

[Michelle Martin]

He's known for his incisive, hard hitting commentaries about race. But one of the points that you make in the book is that he talked about how race as a form of oppression doesn't live alone. It's connected to all these other forms of oppression around sexuality, around gender. And, you know, we have words for that now. We call it intersectionality. But I don't think that too many other intellectuals were thinking in those terms or talking in those terms at that time. I mean, how was that received?

[Nicholas Boggs]

Well, his essays early in his career and for most of his career were really about, you know, race relations. Right. However, his insights into sexuality were key. He felt menaced by his sexuality. Right. By these categories. So he really had to think about it, and he had to think about the way that miscegenation, right at the heart of enslavement in this country was a sexualized dynamic. But he said, when he asked why he wrote Giovanni's Ruin, he said, if I hadn't written this novel, I don't know if I could have ever written again. This was something in himself that he had to confront, Right. His own sexuality. And he said no one could blackmail him then. You didn't tell me. I told you. That's what he said. So this is how he kind of rejected these systems of domination in terms of these identities.

[Michelle Martin]

We look at his body of work now, and we think, oh, my gosh, he was so productive. But he had many periods where he was really struggling. He was struggling to get published. He was struggling to get his career off the ground. He had many projects that never saw fruition. Do you think that those are all related? How do you understand that?

[Nicholas Boggs]

Well, listen, I think Baldwin was a human being, and that's one of the things that I really tried to sort of explore and get across in this book. And. And in some ways, yes, he had some difficult relationships, shall we say. But what struck me as I wrote the book was actually how incredible it was that he had these relationships that sustained him for so long and came in and out. So Baldwin loved his family here in Harlem, but he was living most of his life abroad. So he had to construct these alternative kinship structures. Right. So Jeuffer Delaney was his spiritual father then Lucien Habersberger, his first great love in Paris. They were together on and off for years. He. Yeah, they had some really rocky times, but it was Lucien who came to his bedside and was there when he died. I mean, they became like family. The same with Engin Cesar, who I also explore his Turkish friend, Bjorn Kazak as well. So while he had these frustrations, he also provides a model for, like, a kind of expansive sort of erotic and platonic life with other people that can move in and out of these different iterations. However, there's no denying that difficulties of racism and homophobia had a very, very negative impact on them.

[Michelle Martin]

What would you say is Baldwin's legacy?

[Nicholas Boggs]

It is a legacy of love. It's a difficult love, it's a risky love. It's not like this easy romantic love. He always said that love is a battle, love is a war, love is a growing up. And that's because his journey to self love was difficult. Right? But the journey that we're on now in America, just reclaim our humanity, is also going to be a battle and a war. And I don't mean that in terms of weapons. I mean that internally inside of us as Americans coming to really trying to truly see each other as human beings.

[Michelle Martin]

Nicholas Boggs, thank you so much for talking with us.

[Nicholas Boggs]

It's great to be here, Michelle.

[Michelle Martin]

Nicholas Boggs is the author of A Love Story.

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