European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Baldwins next Book deals with the 197981 child murders in latest Book to be published in september elder statesman Lames Baldwin Story and photo by de Reavis staff writer sitting at a rustic table under the thatched roof in the Garden of his Home in James 61 years old and the author of 19 sips a Beer and sums up his present in an elder statesman says who has spoken out on the Black condition in America since his first go Tell it on the was published in that better than being a promising Young Black just Baldwin is putting the finishing touches on his new evidence of things not about the murders of 28 Young atlant area Blacks from 1979 to Wayne Williams was convicted of two of the killings in april baldwins Book will be published in Paris in september and in the United states in it was a very rough Book to it was not the research that was so but dealing with being in Atlanta at that which ultimately stretched Over a period of you its difficult to Deal with your own feelings about dealing with the Mother or the father of the missing or murdered you really dont realize How deep those feelings Are until you confront what Are you going to what Are you going to ask then there Are the economic and political ramifications of the in a is what the entire Book is when he James Baldwin comes to its where he keeps his he Ive been coming to France for More than half my said who has also written notes of a native Giovannis going to meet the Man and if Beale Street could i first came to France in 1948 in the i stayed until 1952 until i finished my first i then went Back Home but i guess the Best Way to put it is that i lived in Paris and went Home two or three times until 1 that year Baldwin returned to the United the racial situation in the South concerned and he wanted to see conditions since 1970 he has commuted Between Europe and the United the relative privacy of a Village perched 14 Miles above the Seaside resort of appeals to Here youre you can never take a walk in new York and be Central Park is an obstacle you just dont walk through Central Park trying to figure out the last chapter of your new in any i Baldwin said he finds life in America very tense and above very you have to reconcile yourself to the fact that there is nothing you can do about at the same time you have to protect so this is where my typewriter this is where i really this is where i take off my shoes and dont have to answer the Baldwin came to France to As we Black Folk put i was always in the wrong neighbourhood and you pay for it seemed Clear to me that it was time for me to partly because i am the oldest of nine i was they were my father was dead and the whole idea of becoming a writer was very but that was the Only Hope i and i want going to be Able to do it if i spent All my time reacting to landlords that didst want me to live reacting to reacting you you get the Baldwin arrived in Paris with and a one Way knowing nobody and no but a boy of 24 does that when Hes really been pushed and Why Paris i dont know Richard Wright was in but i didst expect anything from i knew some people in but i had not seen them for i did expect to find out who i was As distinguished from what i after that i Felt i could take it from but things have changed since Baldwin fled to Europe is no longer the Center of the world part of the Western i came to Paris because i never would have thought of going to latin America and there was no possibility of going to my generation would have almost automatically thought of Paris or London because of Charles because of Balzac and All Europe was the Only place that was with a capital he that Frame of reference is no longer valid for a 24yearold Black the world is much much larger than it options Are there also but options always involve its part of the crisis in Western psychology the world is changing and theres nothing they can do to Stop no one can hold on to the you have to use the past to Deal with the present and create the As a senior Baldwin is swamped with manuscripts from Young Black and he tries to do his Best in Reading them and getting them to Good editors and but the Boom of Black literature of the late 60s is Baldwin and he called that Boom a a convulsion of some kind on the part of american Baldwin believes the entire american publishing scene has much to the detriment of and now things have gotten much More difficult for a Young Black or for a Young White for that the publishing scene has become so completely commercial with the flourishing of non books diet How Todo that he or she is faced with a very different scene from when i came Down the there were some real publishers and there were some real and no doubt there Are still some editors left but a great number of the ones i know Are out looking for the publishing world is More and More in the hands of big there of Baldwin said a Young writer needs in his Baldwin it came from his it was a real connection which prevented me from going on the Needle or drinking myself to death just going i didst want the kids to be ashamed of that May have been the the Community in which i grew up in Harlem was a Community none of that is True anymore anywhere in the United so the kid is almost from the get go Man or and the same difficulty that i had relating to Black people and relating to White people would still be True theres almost no difference the Bottom line Hast August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 13