Editing James Baldwin (section)

==Inspiration and relationships==
[[Image:Richard Wright.jpg|thumb|right|[[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]] (1908–1960) photographed in 1939 by Carl Van Vechten]]
A great influence on Baldwin was the painter [[Beauford Delaney]]. In ''[[The Price of the Ticket]]'' (1985), Baldwin describes Delaney as:

<blockquote>... the first living proof, for me, that a black man could be an artist. In a warmer time, a less blasphemous place, he would have been recognized as my teacher and I as his pupil. He became, for me, an example of courage and integrity, humility and passion. An absolute integrity: I saw him shaken many times and I lived to see him broken but I never saw him bow.</blockquote>

Later support came from [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]], whom Baldwin called "the greatest black writer in the world". Wright and Baldwin became friends, and Wright helped Baldwin to secure the Eugene F. Saxton Memorial Foundation $500 fellowship.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goodmantheatre.org/artists/james-baldwin/|title=Artist Bio {{!}} James Baldwin|publisher=Goodman Theatre|access-date=May 22, 2024}}</ref> Baldwin's essay "Notes of a Native Son" and his collection ''[[Notes of a Native Son]]'' allude to Wright's 1940 novel ''[[Native Son]]''. In Baldwin's 1949 essay "Everybody's Protest Novel", however, he indicated that ''Native Son'', like [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1852), lacked credible characters and psychological complexity, and the friendship between the two authors ended.<ref>Wright, Michelle M., {{"'}}Alas, Poor Richard!': Transatlantic Baldwin, The Politics of Forgetting, and the Project of Modernity", Dwight A. McBride (ed.), ''James Baldwin Now'', New York University Press, 1999, p. 208.</ref> Interviewed by [[Julius Lester]],<ref>{{cite news|first=Julius |last=Lester| url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-reflections.html| title=James Baldwin — Reflections of a Maveerick| newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 27, 1984}}</ref> however, Baldwin explained: "I knew Richard and I loved him. I was not attacking him; I was trying to clarify something for myself."

In 1949, Baldwin met and fell in love with Lucien Happersberger, a boy aged 17, though Happersberger's marriage three years later left Baldwin distraught. When the marriage ended, they later reconciled, with Happersberger staying by Baldwin's deathbed at his house in [[Saint-Paul-de-Vence]].<ref>Wilde, Winston, ''Legacies of Love'', p. 93.</ref> Happersberger died on August 21, 2010, in Switzerland.

Baldwin was a close friend of the singer, pianist, and civil rights activist [[Nina Simone]]. [[Langston Hughes]], [[Lorraine Hansberry]], and Baldwin helped Simone learn about the Civil Rights Movement. Baldwin also provided her with literary references influential on her later work. [[Baldwin–Kennedy meeting|Baldwin and Hansberry met with Robert F. Kennedy]], along with [[Kenneth B. Clark|Kenneth Clark]] and [[Lena Horne]] and others in an attempt to persuade Kennedy of the importance of civil rights legislation.<ref>{{cite news|last=Fisher|first=Diane|title=Miss Hansberry and Bobby K|date=June 6, 1963|volume=VIII|number=33|url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2009/05/clip_job_miss_h.php|work=The Village Voice|access-date=November 8, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018054636/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2009/05/clip_job_miss_h.php|archive-date=October 18, 2012}}</ref>

Baldwin influenced the work of French painter [[Philippe Derome]], whom he met in Paris in the early 1960s. Baldwin also knew [[Marlon Brando]], [[Charlton Heston]], [[Billy Dee Williams]], [[Huey P. Newton]], [[Nikki Giovanni]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Jean Genet]] (with whom he campaigned on behalf of the [[Black Panther Party]]), [[Lee Strasberg]], [[Elia Kazan]], [[Rip Torn]], [[Alex Haley]], [[Miles Davis]], [[Amiri Baraka]], Martin Luther King Jr., [[Dorothea Tanning]], [[Leonor Fini]], [[Margaret Mead]], [[Josephine Baker]], [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Chinua Achebe]], and [[Maya Angelou]]. He wrote at length about his "political relationship" with Malcolm X. He collaborated with childhood friend [[Richard Avedon]] on the 1964 book ''Nothing Personal''.<ref>{{cite news | first = Robert | last = Brustein | url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1964/12/17/everybody-knows-my-name/ | title = Everybody Knows My Name | work = New York Review of Books | date = December 17, 1964 | quote= ''Nothing Personal'' pretends to be a ruthless indictment of contemporary America, but the people likely to buy this extravagant volume are the subscribers to fashion magazines, while the moralistic authors of the work are themselves pretty fashionable, affluent, and chic.}}</ref>

Baldwin was fictionalized as the character Marion Dawes in the 1967 novel ''[[The Man Who Cried I Am]]'' by [[John A. Williams]].<ref>Tucker, Jeffrey Allen (2018). ''Conversations with John A. Williams''. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. {{ISBN|978-1-4968-1817-1}}, p 129.</ref>

Maya Angelou called Baldwin her "friend and brother" and credited him for "setting the stage" for her 1969 autobiography ''[[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]]''. Baldwin was made a [[Legion of Honour|Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur]] by the French government in 1986.<ref>{{cite news |last=Angelou |first=Maya |title=A brother's love |work=The New York Times |date= December 20, 1987 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-angelou.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=login | access-date =October 8, 2008}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Durie |first=Alexander |date=September 29, 2023 |title=In search of James Baldwin's lost house |newspaper=[[Financial Times]] |url=https://www.ft.com/content/76d36136-91d7-4d77-b908-86231867068f |access-date=November 13, 2023}}</ref>

Baldwin was also a close friend of Nobel Prize-winning novelist [[Toni Morrison]], who lived for a time in same apartment building in New York.<ref name="Baldwin" /> Upon his death, Morrison wrote a eulogy for Baldwin that appeared in ''[[The New York Times]]''. In the eulogy, entitled "Life in His Language", Morrison credits Baldwin as being her literary inspiration and the person who showed her the true potential of writing. She writes:

{{blockquote|You knew, didn't you, how I needed your language and the mind that formed it? How I relied on your fierce courage to tame wildernesses for me? How strengthened I was by the certainty that came from knowing you would never hurt me? You knew, didn't you, how I loved your love? You knew. This then is no calamity. No. This is jubilee. "Our crown," you said, "has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do," you said, "is wear it"<ref>{{cite news |last=Morrison |first=Toni |title=Life in His Language |work=The New York Times |date=December 20, 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-morrison.html |access-date=October 17, 2012}}</ref>}}

Following Baldwin's death, the failure to have awarded him either a [[National Book Award]] or the [[Pulitzer Prize]] prompted 48 African-American writers and critics – among them [[Maya Angelou]], [[Amiri Baraka]], [[Henry Louis Gates, Jr]], [[John Edgar Wideman]], and [[John A. Williams]] – to sign a statement published in the ''New York Times Book Review'' deploring the fact that Morrison had not been given either award for her celebrated novel ''[[Beloved (novel)|Beloved]]'', with signatories [[June Jordan]] and [[Houston A. Baker]] further stating: "... even as we mourn the passing of so legendary a writer as James Baldwin, and even as we may revel in the posthumous acclamations of his impact and his public glory, how shall we yet grieve, relieve or altogether satisfy? ...We grieve because we cannot yet assure that such shame, such national neglect, will not occur again, and then, again."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/19/books/48-black-writers-protest-by-praising-morrison.html|first=Edwin |last=McDowell |title=48 Black Writers Protest By Praising Morrison|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 19, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/l-black-writers-in-praise-of-toni-morrison-293988.html|title=Black writers in praise of Toni Morrison|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 24, 1988|page=36|access-date=March 22, 2025}}</ref>

Although Baldwin and [[Truman Capote]] were acquaintances, they were not friends. In fact, Capote berated him several times.<ref>{{cite news|work=Hollywood Reporter|url= https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-episode-5-james-baldwin-truman-capote-1235831981/ |access-date=September 9, 2024 |title= 'Feud' Bosses Explain Mid-Season Bottle Episode with James Baldwin and Truman Capote |date= February 22, 2024 }}</ref>