Outlaw Marriages (24 page)

When the book was released in 1953, reviewers were impressed.
Time
magazine described the work as “compelling,” and the
New Yorker
called it “a first novel of quite exceptional promise.”
24

By 1954, Baldwin was feeling a mixture of emotions. On the one hand, he was pleased that critics had lauded
Go Tell It on the Mountain
. On the other hand, he desperately longed for the emotional stability he'd enjoyed while living with Happersberger. Because of the latter feelings, the author was “lonely and unhappy,” according to one biographer, and experiencing a period of “deep depression,” according to another.
25

Adding to Baldwin's gloom were developments in the life of Beauford Delaney. The author and his mentor remained in frequent contact, and Baldwin talked at length with the older man about his despair at not being with the love of his life. Baldwin became concerned, however, because Delaney drank heavily and sometimes seemed to lose touch with reality.
26

Baldwin tried to start a new novel, but his feelings of loneliness kept him from writing anything he liked. An old friend from school who was now at a publishing house approached him about putting together a collection of essays. Baldwin initially resisted taking on the project, preferring to work on his novel. When he couldn't make progress on the fictional work, though, he agreed to focus on the essays, which were published under the title
Notes of a Native Son
.
27

It's unclear whether Baldwin or Happersberger was the catalyst for the two men reconnecting in late 1954. Regardless of which man had the idea of the artist moving to the United States, Baldwin was at the airport to meet
Happersberger—who arrived without either his wife or his son—when he landed in New York City.
28

The couple moved into a small apartment in Greenwich Village, Baldwin telling friends they planned to re-create the blissful life they'd enjoyed in Loèche-les-Bains. In the words of one biographer, “He was obsessed with the idea of having a happy, settled domestic life with Lucien.” The New York location proved to have benefits for Happersberger, who found plenty of interesting scenes in the city to paint, although he sold very few of his finished works.
29

Living with the man he loved once again propelled Baldwin into a productive period. His project this time was titled
Giovanni's Room
, and he made major strides forward with the novel in early 1955. Baldwin acknowledged the central role that his partner played in his completing the book by dedicating it “To Lucien.”
30

Giovanni's Room
differs from
Go Tell It on the Mountain
not only because the protagonist is bisexual rather than straight, but also because he is white rather than African American. That main character, David, falls in love with an Italian man, Giovanni, but both of the characters suffer enormously because of David's inability to accept his sexuality.
31

Before the publisher had even released
Giovanni's Room
, the problems between Baldwin and Happersberger had resurfaced. “There were many fights,” one friend of the couple recalled. “Nothing really had changed. Jimmy wanted a lover to end all lovers; Lucien wanted a friend. When several women came into Lucien's life, Jimmy was hurt.” The two men again separated. Baldwin returned to Paris, while Happersberger stayed in New York.
32

The novelist found some comfort in the fact that the reviews of
Giovanni's Room
were highly positive. The
San Francisco Chronicle
praised the author “for portraying the homosexual struggle with dignity and compassion,” and
Harper's
magazine wrote that “the intensity with which Baldwin endows ideas is very nearly miraculous.”
33

Giovanni's Room
was one of the most explicit novels about same-sex love written up to that time, and Baldwin didn't deny that he was gay if someone asked him. And yet, the American news media were so uncomfortable talking about homosexuality that neither the reviews of the book nor the feature stories about Baldwin discussed the author's lifestyle or mentioned his relationship with Happersberger.
34

After the failure of Baldwin's second attempt to live with the man he loved, he again spiraled into depression. One friend later recalled, “Lucien remained somewhere at the center of Jimmy's being, and he still hoped for a future with him.”
35

One night the writer became so distraught over having lost Happersberger that he attempted suicide. Fortunately, a friend arrived at Baldwin's apartment shortly after he'd swallowed several dozen sleeping pills. Realizing what the writer had done, the friend forced him to empty his stomach by repeatedly vomiting.
36

With regard to his writing, Baldwin again found it impossible to create the quality fiction he'd produced in his first two novels. So he resorted to producing short stories and essays instead. These works were published as
Nobody Knows My Name
. In the introduction, Baldwin characterized the years since he'd published his last novel—which coincided with the period since he'd lived with Happersberger—as “sad and aimless.”
37

The first indication that this period was nearing its end came in late 1960 when Baldwin received a letter from Happersberger offering to reconnect. The artist proposed that the two men live together in New York, but this time he wanted to place two conditions on the arrangement. Specifically, Happersberger insisted that, from the start, Baldwin had to agree that, first, they'd reside under the same roof only for a few months and, second, they wouldn't be monogamous.
38

Baldwin accepted the terms and rented an apartment, finding one that was large enough that the two men could live together but, at the same time, have separate spaces where they could work and sleep independently when they wanted to.
39

Within a matter of weeks after Baldwin and Happersberger reunited, the author finished the manuscript for
Another Country
. Various friends of Baldwin's had come to recognize, by this point, the stabilizing influence that having Happersberger in his life had on the writer. In the words of one of them, “Lucien had an intuitive understanding of Jimmy's needs and feelings.”
40

Precisely when Baldwin and Happersberger stopped living together this time is unclear, partly because of the unconventional nature of the arrangement. That is, because Happersberger had said from the outset that he wouldn't be sexually faithful to Baldwin, he often spent several nights in a row away from the apartment. The two men definitely were living apart by the time
Another Country
was published in 1962.
41

The novel has a complex plot structured around the lives of eight racially and sexually diverse men and women living in Greenwich Village. The many conflicts among the characters symbolize what Baldwin saw as the crises that dominated America in the 1960s. One of the most controversial aspects of the work is that it portrays gayness as having redemptive power—perhaps even being the basis on which a bold new world could be built.
42

Another Country
received mixed reviews, although the positive ones outnumbered the negative. The
New York Times
considered it “a sad story, brilliantly and fiercely told,” and the
Atlantic Monthly
praised it as a “powerful
and disturbing novel by one of the most talented of our young writers.”
Time
, by contrast, concluded that
Another Country
was “a failure” that “does not live up to advance hopes.”
43

Regardless of what the critics had to say, readers bought copies of
Another Country
at a feverish pace. The novel quickly jumped to the top of the national best-seller list and stayed there for several months. “Many younger people,” one Baldwin biographer wrote, “seemed to identify with the way of life the book described.” The fact that the book was condemned as “obscene” in New Orleans, and therefore banned from being sold in that city, also boosted its popularity among many prospective readers.
44

Baldwin had been thinking, since the late 1950s, about writing a book that would contribute to the evolving civil rights movement. After
Another Country
became a best seller, he was determined to move forward on this project, as he now was confident that what he wrote had the potential to attract a large audience and, consequently, have major impact.
45

Unfortunately, though,
Another Country
's commercial success brought Baldwin so much attention that he couldn't concentrate on his writing. With relatives asking for financial support, magazine editors requesting articles, and other authors begging him for advice, the demands were so overwhelming that Baldwin could barely function.
46

Then Lucien Happersberger came to the rescue. Seeing that Baldwin needed to distance himself from the various distractions if he was to focus on the project he really cared about, Happersberger took the author back to the Swiss chalet where he'd finished his first novel.
47

As had been the case each of the other times Baldwin and Happersberger had lived together, the author made rapid progress on the project at hand. In the words of one biographer, “For four decades, Happersberger had played a role in each significant act of Baldwin's life.”
48

In
The Fire Next Time
, Baldwin argued that American history is primarily the story of whites being relentlessly inhuman to blacks. Baldwin didn't offer easy answers as to what would right the nation's wrongs, but he made it clear that America couldn't thrive until it began treating blacks as equals. “The price of the liberation of the white people,” he wrote, “is the liberation of the blacks—the total liberation, in the cities, in the towns, before the law, and in the mind.”
49

When
The Fire Next Time
was released, it immediately soared to number one on the best-seller list, attracting even more readers than
Another Country
had. Baldwin's latest offering also spawned a plethora of positive reviews, along with a few strongly negative ones. In the positive camp,
The Nation
called the book a “tract of the times,” and the
Atlantic Monthly
praised it as “eloquent in its passion and scorching in its candor.” In the negative camp, the conservative
National Review
said Baldwin was misguided because “more racial progress has been made in the past generation than in all the past history.”
50

The Fire Next Time
's publication in January 1963 turned Baldwin into a high-profile racial activist virtually overnight. He began speaking at civil rights rallies and demonstrations throughout the country, and news reporters often turned to him for his comments on the latest development in the struggle for black equality.
51

A sense of Baldwin's new stature came in early May when, during a rally in Los Angeles, he criticized President John F. Kennedy for not doing enough to advance the cause of African Americans. After he made that statement, the president's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, invited Baldwin to his Manhattan apartment for a private meeting—an event that landed Baldwin's name on the front page of the
New York Times
three days in a row. Even after that session in which the attorney general tried to mollify Baldwin, however, the author continued to demand more action from the White House.
52

Time
magazine reinforced Baldwin's lofty status later that spring by placing his photo on its cover and describing his beliefs inside. “American history, as Baldwin sees it,” according to the piece, “is an unending story of the white man's refusal to see the black man as a human being.”
Time
praised Baldwin as an articulate voice for his race, saying, “In the U.S. today there is not another writer who expresses with such poignancy and abrasiveness the dark realities of the racial ferment in North and South.”
53

Baldwin agreed with the nonviolent approach that the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. championed, and the two men often appeared at the same events. In August 1963, the author was among the leaders who spoke before King gave his seminal “I Have a Dream” speech as part of the March on Washington. On that historic day, Baldwin struck a hopeful chord, saying, “For the first time in history, the Negro is becoming aware of his value as a human being and is no longer at the mercy of what the white people imagine him to be.”
54

Baldwin's activism continued after President Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon B. Johnson moved into the White House. Unlike many Americans, the author wasn't satisfied with the civil rights initiatives that LBJ enacted. “What is crucial,” Baldwin told a
New York Times
reporter in 1965, “is that none of these slogans—‘War on Poverty,' ‘The Great Society'—means anything unless there are basic changes in the redistribution of wealth and
power.”
55

Lucien Happersberger supported Baldwin's activism in concrete ways. When the author was inundated with speaking invitations, the artist put his painting aside and served as Baldwin's business manager. This meant that Baldwin channeled all requests to Happersberger, who evaluated them and decided which ones the author/activist accepted. Happersberger then made his partner's travel arrangements and also accompanied him on many of the trips. When both men were at home in New York, they sometimes lived together but other times lived apart.
56