“Love Jimmy”

Dear Reader, Isn’t this a great photograph? And what a smile! James Baldwin would have turned 100 this month. His incredible take on life, his writing, his astute cultural commentary are all timeless contributions. This past summer, in honor of this great author, Yale’s Beinecke Library showcased the exhibit: “Love Jimmy”-Letters from James Baldwin to Mary Painter, 1957.

“…When I realized that I couldn’t marry Mary Painter, I realized I could marry no one,” James once said about his friend, Mary. The two met in Paris in 1950. James fled to escape American prejudice. Mary, a white economist, was tasked with setting up the European headquarters of the Marshall Plan in 1948.

Music, whiskey and cigarettes bonded Mary, Jimmy, and Lucien (“Happerberger”- Jimmy’s lover.) The three became lifelong friends. It was Mary who would lend Jimmy money. It was at Mary’s home that he celebrated receiving a National Institute of Arts and Letters grant in 1956. And it was Mary he called when he attempted suicide. She forced him to vomit up the sleeping pills he had ingested. Depressed and struggling to finish Another Country, Mary saw to it that he completed his third novel. And he went on to dedicate the book to her. She was one of James Baldwin’s closest friends.

Mary and Jimmy’s friendship is well documented in more than 100 letters dating between 1953 through 1964. The letters in the “Love Jimmy” exhibit featured just one year of their correspondence, 1957. It was a one-sided glimpse into their private world.* As with any long-term pen friendship, confidence and trust were at the foundation. Jimmy felt open and free to confide in Mary about his “struggles with writing, romance, and family.” His letters are humorous, searching, joyful, and heartbroken. There were shared secrets, inside jokes, and private nicknames.

“Love Jimmy” displayed a very intimate, uninhibited view of James Baldwin as he expressed to Mary Painter what was on his mind. In 1957, James Baldwin travelled widely. The letters and postcards from that year came from France, New York, Alabama, and Switzerland.

…I have never seen so much snow.” Beinecke Library

In reviewing James’ letters to Mary, we were allowed to experience his living history. Of course, that’s what letters do. They time travel the reader right back to that exact moment while the ink is still drying. It was an enduring treat. One can almost feel the chill of all that snow!