... by Baldwin but my many of his Parisian ex-pats. When he relocated to France in 1948 Baldwin's focus shifted from the intellectual, where he had previously written for both The Nation and New Leader toward the creative as he found success as an essayist. Baldwin's first novel was published in 1953; Go Tell it on the Mountain, managed to catch the eye of some of the critics. "Go back to where you started," James Baldwin ... wrote, "or as far back as you can, examine all of it, travel your road again and tell the truth about it. Sing or shout ... or testify or keep it to yourself: but know...

• Word Count: 2134
• Approx Pages: 9

... Leukerbad, not far in terms of absolute distance, was not all that easy to get to. August 2, 2014: it was James Baldwin's birthday. Were he alive, he would be turning ninety. He is one of those people just on the cusp of escaping the contemporary and slipping into the historical-John Coltrane would have turned eighty-eight this year; Martin Luther King, Jr., would have turned eighty ... a village up in the mountains. And so Baldwin, who was depressed and distracted at the time, went, and the village (which is also called Loèche-les-Bains) proved to be a refuge for him. His first trip w...

• Word Count: 1342
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School