David Adams Leeming
Autor de The World of Myth: An Anthology
Sobre El Autor
David A. Leeming is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. He is the author or editor of numerous books on world mythology, including The Oxford Companion to World Mythology (2005).
Obras de David Adams Leeming
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre legal
- Leeming, David Adams
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1937-02-26
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Peekskill, New York, USA
- Lugares de residencia
- Istanbul, Turkey
New York, New York, USA
Connecticut, USA
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA - Educación
- New York University (PhD|Comparative Literature|1970)
Princeton University (AB|1958) - Ocupaciones
- scholar of English and comparative literature
university professor - Organizaciones
- University of Connecticut
Modern Language Association of America
Robert College in Istanbul
The James Baldwin Project
Miembros
Reseñas
Listas
Best Biographies (1)
También Puede Gustarte
Autores relacionados
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 35
- Miembros
- 2,392
- Popularidad
- #10,729
- Valoración
- 3.6
- Reseñas
- 14
- ISBNs
- 107
- Idiomas
- 2
published: 1994
format: 420 page hardcover
acquired: library
read: Jan 1-19
time reading: 18 hr 3 min, 2.6 min/page
rating: 4
I read this to get me excited about reading Baldwin this year and learn more about what kind of person he was. And it did get me excited at first because Baldwin is fascinating. He was that kind of energetic personality that can never settle down. It seems he always felt to the need to be bold, and do something slightly unexpected, and somehow to hover on the edge of some kind of self-destabilization, while at the same time always craving a stability. When he wrote, it was from his life. It seems his personality, boldness and incisive self-analysis provided the power behind his fiction and essays. And, on top of all that, he was black and gay in an electric time and threw himself into the midst of the Civil Rights movement.
It curious because my view of Baldwin isn't as a prominent Civil Right leader, but as curious highbrow writer I didn't know much else about. It's not like I ever thought MLK, Malcolm X and James Baldwin in same formative way. And there was something different about him. He was raised in Harlem, became a preacher at 14 (significantly influencing his writing and speaking styles), but his life led him to a kind of bohemian 1940's Greenwich Village and then to a Paris of expats, hanging out with a more liberal and largely white crowd. He would be mocked as not being black enough, and it seems he was always writing to ear of the liberal white (and very Jewish) crowd. That is to say he was both prominent and on the edge.
(I should note I'm liberal, white and Jewish, so maybe I'm the right kind of reader.)
Leeming met Baldwin in Istanbul in the mid 1960's, at the height of his fame after [The Fire Next time]. He become close with Baldwin and his milieu in Istanbul, and later worked for Baldwin organizing his papers. So, he writes from some intimacy and knowledge about his writing and world, including some anecdotes on their relationship. After he wrote a letter to Baldwin complaining about how his lifestyle was hurting him and his writing, Baldwin wrote him back, where, paraphrased by Leeming, "He declared...I must understand that disorder was in a sense a necessary aspect of his life as a writer. He could not afford to be tamed." He draws a life of Baldwin through a collection of small details, not so much bringing his subject to life as letting the reader construct it from the information. Every book Baldwin published gets a chapter, and every moment in his and his various intimate relationships, many platonic, gets covered. Sometimes chapters end in what practically amount to lists of various people he met while in one city or another. It's treasure trove of compressed information and oddly works to construct this unusual personality. And, of course, it's a little overwhelming. Instead of rushing out to Baldwin's first book, I need a little break to recover.
Recommended to those interested in Baldwin and willing the put in the time this book may take.
2019
https://www.librarything.com/topic/301619#6716843… (más)