Editing James Baldwin (section)

==Expatriate Years in Paris==

In 1948, feeling suffocated by American racism and seeking space to write freely, Baldwin moved to Paris. He would spend much of the rest of his life in Europe, primarily France, though he returned to the United States frequently — especially during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

Paris gave Baldwin the distance and freedom he needed to examine America from the outside. It was there that he completed his debut novel, ''[[Go Tell It on the Mountain]]'' (1953), a semi-autobiographical account of a single day in the life of a Harlem family rooted in the Pentecostal church. The novel was immediately recognized as a major literary achievement.