James Baldwin in love

Join us as The Ink Book Club talks to Nicholas Boggs about "Baldwin: A Love Story," his new biography of the iconic writer and thinker

Today, Wednesday, September 17, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll be speaking with author Nicholas Boggs. Watch on desktop at The Ink or on a phone or tablet using the Substack app.

Author Nicholas Boggs, author of the new biography Baldwin: A Love Story, has been a lifetime admirer of Baldwin since he first encountered the writer in middle school. After reading his sister’s copy of Baldwin’s 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room, he was so struck by the tale of a love affair between two men set in Paris that he refused to return it to her. In college, he stumbled upon an out-of-print children’s book entitled Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood, a collaboration between Baldwin and the French painter, Yoran Cazac. Boggs, determined to find a way to bring the book back into print, set out to track Cazac down, taking out a third credit card to finance his trip.

He found him in a French village. Cazac, it turned out, had been Baldwin’s last great love, and shared many of his recollections of their relationship with Boggs. Not only was Boggs able to bring Little Man back into print, but their conversations sparked another idea: Boggs would structure a biography around love, specifically, around four men Baldwin had had key relationships with, each essential to the man and artist Baldwin became.

There have been previous biographies of James Baldwin, who died at age 63 in 1987. But those were written before Baldwin’s archive was acquired by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which Boggs has drawn from here. At 700-plus pages, Baldwin: A Love Story is monumental in both scope and style. Boggs centers the volume on Baldwin’s love life and his queerness, which, in the biographer’s view, were crucial to the evolution of his fiction, essays, plays, and worldview. The book opens with Baldwin’s words: “Love is the only reality, the only terror, the only hope.”

“We need Baldwin’s perspective through the lens of love right now,” says Boggs, “because hate, obviously, is everywhere.”

We hope you’ll join us today at 12:30 p.m. Eastern for this special conversation, and if there’s anything you’d like us to ask Boggs, please leave a comment below. If you haven’t joined our Book Club yet, we hope you’ll become a supporting subscriber, start reading with us, and join in next week when we return to our discussion of poet Kevin Young’s Night Watch.

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How to participate in the Book Club

Each week, we’ll post questions — our discussion guide — on Sunday, and every other Wednesday we’ll meet for a discussion with the Club or a visit from an author or other special guest. Look out for posts with further details. In between, we also host chat threads to get your insight on key questions in advance of our meetings. We’ll meet next on Wednesday, September 24, at 12:30 p.m. for our second and final conversation with Night Watch poet Kevin Young.

To participate in our meetings and author talks on Substack Live, join from your phone or tablet with the Substack app. You can watch on desktop at The Ink, and comment and ask questions in our chat, but you won’t be able to join the live video discussion. Book Club meetings are open to paid subscribers to The Ink, so if you haven’t become part of our community, join us today!

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Photo by Sophie Bassouls/Sygma via Getty Images