Talking at the Gates: 2a Life of James Baldwin

Campbell reveals the difficult personal history of maverick, expatriate black writer Baldwin (1924-1987).``According to this marvelous, illuminating literary biography, the hallmarks of Baldwin's moral vision--ambivalence, doubt, self-knowledge--faded in later works marred by his `belligerent idea of the cathartic powers of art, ' '' said PW . Photos. (Feb.)