28^th Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Authors

James Baldwin

USA

James Baldwin (1924 – 1987) was born to a single mother in New York City. As a teenager he found success as a preacher in his stepfather’s congregation, which led to conflicts between the two. At the age of 24, he emigrated to France in order, by his own account, to escape racism in New York. He was active in the civil rights movement and gave influential speeches against racism. He cultivated friendships with artists and important figures of his time, including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.
“From all available evidence no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came.” So begins the essay Stranger in the Village. Baldwin wrote the text in Leukerbad, where he stayed three times between 1951 and 1953, to work on his first novel Go Tell it on the Mountain. It was a profound experience—for the villagers as well as for Baldwin. His reflections on this experience and on racism in general are still valid and relevant today.

Von dieser Welt. Aus dem Amerikanischen von Miriam Mandelkow. dtv 2019
Fremder im Dorf. Aus dem Amerikanischen von Pociao. Bilgerverlag, edition sacré 2011
In recent years, Baldwin’s novels have been retranslated by Miriam Mandelkow and have been published by dtv Verlag.

Back...