Who is the famous novelist in the picture?

James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924. He was an American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. Baldwin was born the grandson of a slave. The oldest of nine children, he grew up in poverty, developing a troubled relationship with his strict, religious stepfather. As a child, he cast about for a way to escape his circumstances. As he recalls, “I knew I was black, of course, but I also knew I was smart. Baldwin followed in his stepfather's footsteps to become a preacher and that time was reflective in his writing.

After working for a short while with the railroad, Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village, where he worked for a number of years as a freelance writer, working primarily on book reviews. He caught the attention of the well-known novelist, Richard Wright – and though Baldwin had not yet finished a novel, Wright helped him secure a grant with which he could support himself as a writer. In 1948, at age 24, Baldwin left for Paris, where he hoped to find enough distance from the American society he grew up in to write about it. Baldwin was a major part of the Harlem renaissance.