Nicholas Boggs seeks to tell the story of James Baldwin from a different perspective. The scholar’s book, Baldwin: A Love Story is set to release this summer.
It is no secret that Baldwin was bold in his approach to addressing the issues of his time. He is often recognized as someone who left his position as a pastor to “preach the gospel” through literature.
“When you are standing in the pulpit, you must sound as though you know what you’re talking about,” Baldwin said during a 1984 interview with the Paris Review. “When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know,” he continued. “The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you to anyway.”
Baldwin’s ability to use religious tropes to break down societal issues continues to impress readers decades after his passing. Baldwin: A Love Story takes a close look at his personal relationships.
Beauford Delaney, Lucien Happersberer, Yoran Cazac, and Engin Cezzar were four influential individuals in the life of James. Boggs seeks to delve into just how influential in his biography.
Ilyon Woo, author of Master, Slave, Husband, Wife, has called Baldwin: A Love Story “a virtuosic feat of literary imagination, rhapsodic, and transportive.” Kai Bird deems the book “a formidable achievement, beautifully written, engrossing, and extremely intimate.”
Baldwin: A Love Story makes its debut on August 19, 2025.