James Baldwin was born in Harlem, he was the oldest out of 9 children. He never knew his own father and was brought up in great poverty. When he was three, his mother married a factory worker, a hard and cruel man, who also was storefront preacher. Baldwin adopted the surname from his stepfather, David Baldwin, who died eventually in a mental hospital. In his childhood Baldwin was a voracious reader. When he was about twelve his first story appeared in a church newspaper. At the age of 17 Baldwin left his home. He was a store front preacher for three years. He went to Frederick Douglass Junior high and DeWitt Clinton High School and he graduated from High School and moved to New Jersey to begin working as a railroad hand. In 1944 Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village where he met Richard Wright and began his first book which is titled “In my father's house.” He began receiving awards and fellowships, he also published his first essay “ the Harlem Ghetto” in 1948. Plenty of his books were about himself and his life, he just used different names but the characters represented him and his family and how he saw things. Baldwin became disgusted with race relations in the United States so he moved to Paris for almost 12 years, In 1953 he finished his important novel “Go tell it on the Mountain” which is partically an autobiography about when he was younger. In 1954 and 1955 He completed a play named The Amen Corner and he also wrote the novel Giovanni's Room and received awards for both workers. In 1960 Baldwin returned to the Unites States and started to be active in support of Civil Rights. He wrote many other writings such as novels, poetry, essays and also a screen play. On December 1987 at his home in St. Paul de Venice, in France James Baldwin died of Stomach cancer.