In honour of James Baldwin’s centennial, writer and scholar Nicholas Boggs discusses Baldwin’s collaboration with French artist Yoran Cazac, Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood, which was originally published by Michael Joseph in London in 1976. Paying particular attention to the role of music and transatlantic travel both in the story the book tells and in its production, the talk explores some of the ways this genre-bending ‘child’s story for adults’ reflects Baldwin’s celebration and optimism about Black childhood, even as if offers a critique of social ills such as the prison industrial complex and the racist distortions of the mass media.

The Summer Scholars season of free in-person lunchtime talks explores the exciting and wide-ranging research into the Americas and Oceania collections at the British Library by Eccles Institute Fellows and Award winners and British Library members of staff. Be sure to check out our other Summer Scholars events.

Nicholas Boggs is the author of James Baldwin: A Love Story, forthcoming from Farrar, Straus Giroux and Bloomsbury UK. He is also the co-editor of a new edition of Baldwin’s Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood (Duke, 2018). He received his Ph.D. in English from Columbia and will be a 2024-2025 Fellow at the National Humanities Center in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Based in New York City, he was a Fellow at the Eccles Institute in 2022.