James Baldwin (​1924-1987)

Author, playwright and social critic James Baldwin is best known for his 1955 collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son, but his fiction is well-loved and always listed as among the best novels of the twentieth century. Baldwin’s work reflected the challenging times of social change in mid twentieth-century America. His characters - whether white, black, gay or bisexual - searched for social and self-acceptance and as a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement, he fought for social justice and inequity. Baldwin also spent time as a college professor at both UMass and Hampshire College.