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The Best Books of the Year So Far
"Boggs’s book, at more than six hundred pages, makes a hugely important contribution by taking us to the heart of one of Baldwin’s central messages: We’re afraid of love, because we’re afraid of exposing our true selves, and we invent meaningless categories, like Black and white, homosexual and heterosexual, in order to avoid a reckoning with ourselves. This was an urgent problem for Baldwin, and Boggs shows us that, alongside Baldwin’s crusade for civil rights, there was always a private search for a stable, loving relationship."
The Best Books of 2025 Thus Far
"In the first major biography of Baldwin in three decades...the American writer and researcher Nicholas Boggs has assembled a 700-page door stopper of a book’s worth of new archival material and research, prizing back the shell of this titan of 20th-century literature and examining how his most intimate relationships—intellectual and romantic—serve as a window into both his fiction and his motivating beliefs as an activist. Boggs’s immersive and beautifully written book is as pleasurable to read straight through as it is to dip in and out of, making for a worthy addition to the canon of writing about Baldwin."
75 Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List
"The first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades uses new archival material to present the prophetic essayist and novelist for a new generation, and for a time that could sorely use his wisdom, empathy, and fire. At its heart is the force that drove him more than any other: love."
Top Ten Biographies and Memoirs
”The first major biography of James Baldwin since 1994 weaves new interviews, research, and archival material into an account of the legendary writer’s personal and professional relationships.”
Chicago Tribune Summer Books 2025
Sure to devour the last days of summer for James Baldwin fans
LA Times 30 Must Read Books for Summer
”Boggs’ hefty new biography of James Baldwin — the first in three decades — looks at one of the 20th century’s greatest American writers through the lens of his romantic relationships. It’s an ingenious approach.”
PW Summer Reads 2025 Top 10
”James Baldwin’s writings cut to the quick of the American Dream’s many contradictions with rare lyricism and precision. Literary scholar Boggs promises in this major reevaluation of Baldwin’s life to illuminate how his personal relationships with artists, collaborators, and lovers shaped his outlook. I can’t wait to dig in.” —Marc Greenawalt, reviews editor
Most Anticipated Queer Books for Summer 2025
“Baldwin: A Love Story deepens our understanding of a towering figure whose work remains urgent and relevant.”
Great Summer 2025 Book Preview
“Boggs’s door-stopper of a biography—the first of Baldwin in three decades—examines how the visionary author’s intimate and artistic relationships with four men shaped his life and work.” —SMS
New Buzzy Non-Fiction Still to Come in 2025
"This isn’t just another biography about James Baldwin, acclaimed writer and civil rights activist. In Baldwin: A Love Story, Nicholas Boggs set out to explore James Baldwin’s life and works through his intimate relationships: his mentor, the painter Beauford Delaney; Lucien Happersberger, a Swiss painter who was Baldwin’s lover and muse; and his collaborators, actor Engin Cezzar and the French artist Yoran Cazac. “From the very beginning,” Boggs writes that he knew this book was 'a love story.'"