Since 1993, the Summer Author Series has brought award-winning biographers to The Mount. This year’s Series explores lives and ideas that have challenged convention. From unsung heroes to innovators, these talks invite us to reflect on how acts of courage—large and small—have challenged assumptions and expanded our collective imagination.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE JOHN LEONARD PRIZE • WINNER OF THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY • A TIME AND ATLANTIC TOP 10 BOOK OF 2025 • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025
An instant New York Times bestseller, Baldwin: A Love Story is the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades. The book draws on newly uncovered archival material, original research, and interviews to trace the intimate and artistic relationships—from mentors and collaborators to lovers and muses—that sustained Baldwin and shaped his writing. In this spellbinding portrait, Nicholas Boggs follows Baldwin across continents—from Harlem and Paris to Switzerland, the American South, Istanbul, Africa, and southern France—revealing how he transformed lived experience into novels and essays that spoke truth to power, reshaped Black and queer literary history, and continue to resonate with force today.
IMPORTANT EVENT INFORMATION:
- This one-hour talk takes place in The Mount’s Event Tent, an open-air, 400-seat tent adjacent to the parking lot. Please be mindful of the weather and plan accordingly.
- In the event of extreme weather, such as excessive heat or severe thunderstorms, this program may be moved indoors to The Mount’s Stable Auditorium, which has a limited capacity. All ticket holders will be notified by email at least two hours before the scheduled start time if a venue change is necessary. General admission tickets are valid for outdoor events only. If the program is moved indoors, General Admission tickets will be automatically canceled, and a full refund will be issued.
- If you have concerns about the weather, we recommend selecting the Rain or Shine Ticket option (a $5 add-on) at the time of purchase. Rain or Shine Tickets guarantee admission, whether the program takes place outdoors or is moved indoors.
- Seating for all programs at The Mount is first-come, first-served. If you have seating preferences, we recommend arriving fifteen minutes early.
- Accessible seating is available. To discuss arrangements, please contact us by phone: 413-551-5111 x5; or email: programs@edithwharton.org. For more information about accessibility, review The Mount’s accessibility webpage.
- A book signing will follow this talk. Books can be purchased at the event from The Mount Gift & Bookstore or in advance via Bookshop.org
- Questions? Email: programs@edithwharton.org; or phone: 413-551-5111 x2
Nicholas Boggs was an undergraduate when he discovered James Baldwin’s out-of-print children’s book, Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood, in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. After he tracked down its illustrator, the French artist Yoran Cazac, he went on to coedit an acclaimed new edition of the book in 2018. His writing has also been anthologized in The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin, James Baldwin Now, and Speculative Light: The Arts of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin. He is the recipient of a 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Beinecke Library and Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, the Schomburg Center Scholars-in-Residence Program, and the National Humanities Center, as well as residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell. He received his BA in English from Yale, his MFA in creative writing from American University, and his PhD in English from Columbia. Born and raised in Washington, DC, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.
