Description: Originally published: New York: Knopf, 1994.
Brief description: David Leeming, emeritus professor of English at the University of Connecticut, was a friend of James Baldwin for twenty-five years as well as his assistant from 1963 to 1967. He is also the author of several works on world mythology, including The World of Myth: An Anthology and Medusa: In the Mirror of Time. He lives in Rhinebeck, New York.
Review Quotes: "The best literary biography I've read in a long time. An engrossing narrative." --Leon Edel
"The most revealing and subjectively penetrating assessment of Baldwin's life yet published." --The New York Times Book Review "The first Baldwin biography in which one can recognize the human features of this brilliant, troubled, principled, supremely courageous man." --Boston Globe "Loving but honest . . . [Baldwin] wrote, 'No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it, ' and . . . Mr. Leeming shows so well [the price he paid]." --The New York Times "Intimate, artful--and major . . . An exceptional literary biography deserving wide promotion and readership . . . [by] a personal friend of the great novelist and essayist." --Booklist "Highly perceptive, revealing." --Publishers Weekly