To end Pride season\, join the Library and Loyalty Bookstores for a special celebration of author James Baldwin and his legacy with Nicholas Boggs\, author of Baldwin: A Love Story. In conversation with George M. Johnson\, Boggs will discuss this spellbinding ne w exploration of Baldwin's life and work through his personal relationship s. Come learn about one of our most beloved literary treasures with us.&nb sp\;
\nCopies of the book will be available for sale and signing fro m Loyalty Bookstores. \;
\nAbout the book:
Drawing on new archival material\, original research\, and interviews\, t
his spellbinding book is the first major biography of James Baldwin in thr
ee decades\, revealing how profoundly his personal relationships shaped hi
s life and work. Baldwin: A Love Story\, the first major biograph
y of James Baldwin in three decades\, reveals how profoundly the writer&rs
quo\;s personal relationships shaped his life and work. Drawing on newly u
ncovered archival material and original research and interviews\, this spe
llbinding book tells the overlapping stories of Baldwin&rsquo\;s most sust
aining intimate and artistic relationships: with his mentor\, the Black Am
erican painter Beauford Delaney\; with his lover and muse\, the Swiss pain
ter Lucien Happersberger\; and with his collaborators\, the famed Turkish
actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac\, whose
long-overlooked significance as Baldwin&rsquo\;s last great love is explor
ed in these pages for the first time. Nicholas Boggs shows how Baldwin dre
w on all the complex forces within these relationships&mdash\;geographical
\, cultural\, political\, artistic\, and erotic&mdash\;and alchemized them
into novels\, essays\, and plays that speak truth to power and had an ind
elible impact on the civil rights movement and on Black and queer literary
history. Richly immersive\, \;Baldwin: A Love Story \;follows the
writer&rsquo\;s creative journey between Harlem\, Paris\, Switzerland\, t
he southern United States\, Istanbul\, Africa\, the South of France\, and
beyond. In so doing\, it magnifies our understanding of the public and pri
vate lives of one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century\,
whose contributions only continue to grow in influence.
A bout the author and conversation partner:
\n Nicholas Boggs is the author of
the New York Times bestselling biography\, BALDWIN: A Love Story (FSG\, 2
025)\, winner of the National Book Critics \;Circle John Leonard Prize
\, the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography\, the Stonewall/Isra
el Fishman Nonfiction Award\, and the Randy Shilts Nonfiction Award. It wa
s named a Top Ten Book of 2025 by Time magazine and The Atlantic\, and a N
ew York Times Notable Book of the year. In addition\, it was recognized wi
th an Audie Award for Best Audiobook in History/Biography. Also the co-edi
tor of Baldwin's collaboration with French artist Yoran Cazac\, Little Man
\, Little Man: A Story of Childhood (2018)\, Boggs' research and writing h
ave been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Huma
nities\, the National Humanities Center\, the Gilder Lehrman Center and Be
inecke Library at Yale\, the \;Scholars-in-Residence Program at the&nb
sp\;Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture\, and the Leon Levy Cen
ter for Biography\, as well as a 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. H
e was educated at Yale (BA)\, American University (MFA)\, and Columbia (Ph
D). He lives in New York City. \;
George M Johnson is an Award-Winning Bla
ck Non-Binary Writer\, Author\, and Executive Producer. They are the \
;New York Times Bestselling \;Author of the Young Adult memoir \;<
em>All Boys Aren&rsquo\;t Blue \;discussing their adolescence gro
wing up as a young Black Queer boy in New Jersey through a series of power
ful essays. The book was optioned for Television by Gabrielle Union in 202
0\, and as of 2024 is the \;#1 most banned and challenged book \;i
n the United States. In 2018\, George served as a NY State Spokesperson fo
r the HIV stops with me Campaign. George was listed on The Root 100 Most I
nfluential African Americans in 2020. The Out 100 Most Influential LGBTQ P
eople in 2021. \;And in 2022 was honored as one of the TIME100 Next Mo
st Influential People in the World for their fight against censorship in t
he United States. In 2021 they wrote and Executive Produced the Dramatic R
eading of All Boys Aren&rsquo\;t Blue starring Jenifer Lewis and Dyllon Bu
rnside which received a 2022 Special Recognition Award from GLAAD\, and a&
nbsp\;2023 Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Daytime Special. As a former jo
urnalist\, George has written for over 50 major outlets including Teen Vog
ue\, Entertainment Tonight\, NBC\, and Buzzfeed and Huffpost. In 2019 Geor
ge was awarded the Salute to Excellence Award by the National Association
of Black Journalists for their article &ldquo\;When Racism Anchors your He
alth&rdquo\; in Vice Magazine. Their second memoir We Are Not Broken was r
eleased in September of 2021. It received the \;Carter G. Woodson Awar
d \;which recognizes books that &ldquo\;accurately and sensitively dep
ict the experience of one or more historically marginalized racial/ethnic
groups in the United States&rdquo\;. The book also received the Nonfiction
Honor Book in the YA category from the International Literacy Association
. Their third book Flamboyants the Queer Harlem Renaissance I wish I&rsquo
\;d Known was released in September of 2024. \;Their first fiction boo
k co-written with bestselling author Leah Johnson\, THERE&rsquo\;S ALWAYS
NEXT YEAR was released December 2025\, receiving a Starred Review from Boo
klist and is a Good Morning America Young Adult Book Club pick. George is
also a proud HBCU alum twice over\, and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Frater
nity Incorporated.