i think as i've mentioned if we were to overhaul programs to put incentives in place and also maybe even some help for training and for job placement, that might work even better than oliver twist. i think there's all sorts of reasons to hope that this might be better. ..

of work per se, you will get a different argument there. that is something that i have argued with my friend and colleague about. >> so we promise to end directly and we're right on time. thanks to people that participated. i didn't get to all the questions but i got to most. one of the advantages of this book, unlike a lot of books written in washington this is thin and you can read it. i commend it to all of you. thank you for coming. >> thank you, david. [applause]

[inaudible conversations]. >> i think we'll go ahead and get started. thank you, everybody, for coming. a quick show of hands if this is your first time to book culture on columbus? welcome to the family. 20 years ago this space was the endicott book seller. it was lost to the upper west side along with many other wonderful bookstores over the years. almost a two years ago we took the plunge to open our third location. we're so happy a place to host jewels farber and this wonderful

panel and talk about james baldwin, james baldwin. pete: escape from america. we have plenty of copies up front. pick up a copy or two or three we can stay in this neighborhood as a community space. try to do this very elegantly. so first let me introduce our panelists. carol weinstein is the mother of, the mother of daniel baldwin also on the panel. was a partner of james baldwin's brother david whom she met in 1964. later jimmy would refer to her as his sister out of law. when jimmy bought the house in saint paul de vence, they first visited jimmy in 1977 from amsterdam where they were living

there at the time. they drove there to celebrate his buying the house. carroll went there in 1974 and several times through the '80s with daniel. she and daniel made nostalgic visits after jimmy died and visited his father david there, when he became very ill. he was participant in the afternoon sessions in the welcome table where the author sought criticisms of his work completed in the early hours. daniel fondly recalls his uncle jimmy walking hand in hand with him, visiting many villages in the area, caring for him and taking sightseeing tours to paris, to swimming in the cologne pool in mornings and to the ocean air yum in monte carlo and being taught chess and astounded finding baldwin's

books in many strange languages in the house. carroll long time upper west cider and patron of book culture. she traveled to work extensively during her lengthy career. sheave learning of her sole consultancy, learning works, provides inclusion in human resources, learning and development and leadership management across many work places. associate professor for graduate programs and brightest accomplishment is her son daniel and his greatest accomplishment his two grandchildren. james the son of david and carole. father of grant and poppy, is profession consultant and visual artist who resides in prove dense rhode island. traveling with his mom since he was born in new york city and lived in a few other places he

had benefit of seeing much of the world and enjoys a quieter live in providence, rhode island. okay. thank you, thank you. also joining us is british-born nicholas delbanco his book, running in place, scenes from the south of france he comments on frequency of time spent talking at jimmy's table. delbanco published 29 books of fiction and non-fiction. his latest novel. the nature of fine art. he was director of the fma program and hopwood awards program at the university of michigan until 2015. he is robert frost distinguished university professor the english language literature in michigan and lives around the block from

our store on 114th. all these new yorkers together, come together as a result of their association with this project jules far bore attended university of new brunswick. in netherlands he wrote for various and foreign publications and awarded silent prize by the minister of foreign affairs. for the best articles published in the american press about the netherlands. farber wrote and english and dutch editions for four books. he has published three more books in french and english. his most recent project is this collection, james baldwin escape from america, exile in proven. i will turn it over to them.

you're right. one last night. unfortunately george was not able to join us for the panel. he was very disappointed but not feeling up to it. he turns 91 on monday. and he had a flu shot earlier this week and had a bad reaction to it. so he stayed home. but he wanted us to know how disappointed he was and loved jimmy baldwin and looking forward to reminiscing with the others about him. thankthank you. jules. everybody else. [applause] >> i don't know in if i sit or stand, can everybody hear me? is that better? maybe i stand. first thing people ask me when you hear about the book, why did

you do the book about baldwin? there have been enough books and literary commentary and so forth. i did it because of an accidental finding, discovery of a photograph of james or jimmy as they called him at hotel in st. paul de vence. they all go there during the cannes film festival. early years earlier picasso and chagall came there and sort of traded artwork for meals and inside of the hotel restaurant is full of these wonderful things. i thought it was, because i.

we livedded in amsterdam for number of years. we move to provence. we made it right all to go down to saint-paul provence. to see the wonderful place that has a great art election and enjoy, very unique, special ambience there. i thought it would be nice for my next book, the other was about cezanne and the pope's jews and provence, a big photo book, cocktail table size about cats, photographed by the world's greatest photographers and those kind of people. so this was sort of a off challenge what i could do that was different about baldwin.

i found out the period he was in saint-paul provence has been written about very little. everybody knows about the period in new york and other places. then i thought, maybe, fresh approach might be let's find out people who came to visit him there and how they shaped his life there like carole and daniel and nicholas, and harry belafonte and angela davis and all those people. so i set off, took me more than four years, might be reflection of my slow writing to get this book together and i got on the phone, very brazen-like and called everybody and said,

perhaps you would like to help reminisce about. everybody to the left was happy to cooperate. nobody said i'm too busy or whatever. some of these people i met, i was able to interview or visit here in new york. people like david lemming, who unfortunately couldn't come tonight because he is now living in connecticut and he is traveling but david lemming and other people like that who spent a lot of time with baldwin at home. that is -- besides those, i was also interested in the everyday contacts he had with the people in saint-paul devans is not obviously place from new yorker in harlem to come live. it is very all-white, conservative, agrarian community

that had never seen a plaquemines in their lives and they thought it was revolutionary. the police had a car parked outside of his door, which everybody said you're fans but it was really came out in later publications. so he had a hard time. he said it was just like being in new york in harlem. there was a lot of antagonism. duehis broad, big-toothed smile he won over people. everybody on the street, he said, hey, joe, have a drink with me, correct me if i'm wrong, carole. >> yeah. >> she knew him very well of course. this was part of it. the book is concerned with why did baldwin go to saint-paul. he was feeling depressed and on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of all the assassinations in america.

because of the resistance to his work with the, as an activist. the other young black writers were condemning him. he was having problems on all sides. he felt, so he fled to paris again for the second time and there we a self-induced breakdown, probably mental, he got into the american hospital just outside of paris and after treatment, someone said, why don't you go to saint-paul. , you know people there for your convalescence? he went to saint-paul and was greated there in this hotel with became his second home by simone senore and ev september montand. knew vim from the student riots

in the '60s. watched television with her and drank booze until all hours of the night. simone and and and eves both lived in the hotel but in separate room but he was in simone's room for all encounters. she said you have to stay here and i will help you find a place to live. the place that she came up with was a very elegant 11th century -- 17th century big home, virtually about one kilometer from the heart of the city but really very elegant and the only problem was that the owner was a, someone who hated blacks. she came from algeria where they were dispossessed during the algerian war.

were a very rich family, even though she was only two years old, she kept this hatred for anybody black but simone and the woman owner of the hotel, convinced her to do it, so what did she do? she built a big brick thing, blocking her doors to her part of the house. she put a big armoir, a big wardrobe so she could never come into his space. slowly she learned to love him and wanted him to have the house. and all her forlorn years of loneliness she passed on to him. he kept buying rooms in the house but he didn't have money to pay for him.

he gave her ious. on her deathbed in saint-paul devans, the village in her bedroom leaving instructions that he can't get the house until he pays. that became a court case for 20 years between the cleaning room who was supposedly distant family and claimed was entitled and all these remote relatives appeared from nowhere. for 20 years the house stood empty. it was pilloried by people who stole shutters off the building. there was rain coming in, but nobody owned it until it was finally settled and this cleaning woman got the house finally and sold it. now it is in the news again because the present owner wants to build 20 villas on this beautiful property. monuments committee didn't do

anything to protect it. he has already knocked down two wings of the house. no one knows what is going to happen. that is in the news now. put -- [inaudible] i prepared this and -- even looking at it, sorry. one of the things in, in this the book explores "life with jim" my and with over 70 interviews. and as i said it took me four years because, the essence of the book is to try to get to know his life through the people who came there. and besides the famous people like maya angelou and those

people, there were, everyday, everyday locals who were very close to him. his doctor after he retired was there for every night for dinner his male man who was a very young boy at the time used to come because he was only one in saint-paul who read any english and he had to take down the telegrams which came in by morse code or something, word by word by word and bring it. and he said, he told me i said, i came there i was 15 or 16 and he would always greet me with a big kiss but he was like a grandmother to me. he used that word. i always got invited in for a drink and, he was living in this tense situation at the moment with being followed even in

america, when he went back to teach and he went to new york, the fbi was on his tail, organized by j. edgar hoover. you know about that, been confirmed now. everybody was saying this is only, well, and he called him a black homosexual communist and he has to be followed. he was not a a communist. i think j. edgar hoover should have come out of the closet at that moment. [laughter] people like the rolling stones guitar it, bill wyman was a good friend of his and picture of him in the book. the book has 50 photos which trace his earliest days there

carole, daniel and simone right up to the burial here in new york at st. john the divine, at the cathedral. i think, while taking distance from america, he retained a love-hate relationship. he always felt very american. he said i can't be an expatriate. that is only for white people because i have a lot of baggage with me with the family history and the heritage and don't forget, i was a grandson of a slave. so he always felt this, this double-sided relationship. and he finally became, as he called himself, he said i'm a small, ugly, gay black american as he liked to describe himself but he was finally accepted as one of us in the community.

one of the wonderful things, boeing back to the picture for one minute, is i asked the waiter in the hotel why is there a photo of james baldwin here? i understand picasso because he came an all the others. and he said, because he was like a son to the family roux, r. o, u, x, who opened the hotel and grandmother of the next generation said we want you to be part of the family so you eat with us and stay with us and so forth even though he had his own home. this went on with her daughter and with the present generation. they saw him as a sibling and a brother and they supported him and of course with simone's backing and the family roux which were the most important in town because of their establishment, helped him become known and accepted by the

people. and, he remained a displaced american writer using black english which tony morrison confronted him in one of his writings, that she learned a lot of that from him. that he didn't -- and he never wrote anything, he never wrote anything that gave indication that he was living in france. it was always as if he was in america and doing his usual essays and writing and so forth. the only thing he was writing when he decide was called, "the welcome table." because he called the dining room outdoor and indoor the welcome table and people who came -- he had guests day and night and he didn't have the

money for it. he was getting huge advances from the publishers and it was spent before the check was cashed practically and this went on and on and on until really became a problem after his death with money that he had gotten from a major publisher and of course couldn't be paid back but, he was writing this book, this play, "the welcome table" set, but he died before it was finished. aside from that everything he ever did was america, american oriented. i think i, i hope that answers the question why i did it. i was fascinated by baldwin being in this little french village, by the people who came. everybody, i felt all kinds of people, one of his lovers that fled to the caribbean after he died because of the

relationship. all kinds of people, local, the mailman, the chauffeurs, the cafe owners, everybody came and everybody -- i did not find anybody who had a disparaging word about him. he was very popular there and very successful and, i think it is wonderful that such a book could be produced with all of the good evidence and all the nice people on the panel, nicholas, who lived nearby as you heard. who was there all the time. i remember from his book, that his wife was keeping notes about whenner this there and they were there at lunch or dinner and lunch or breakfast and dinner. almost, he had to have a lot of people around him all the time, but people he liked. he was very close to the artistic community in saint-paul, to artists that painted and writers there, nicholas and a few others. that more or less tells the story of the book.

i hope you enjoy it. thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible] i think we would like to call on carole to tell, in her words, her relationship with jimmy and through her partner, david and her frequent and early visits to, staying in the house, being with him, hearing the, writing that he read to her an to several other people. at the, at the lunch table because he got up very late. he worked all night. drink a lot of whiskey and produced this fiction or essays and then he asked several very

close friends, and his secretary and his family to please tell me, what do you think? please, carole. >> thank you very much, jules. well, i met david baldwin in 1964 in the east village at a party. i was living in the area and we met at a party at the home of an attorney that worked for jimmy, and, then it was up or down from there depending how you look at it. but it ended up being, literally the next 3/4 of my life in terms of amazing experiences and things that i treasure. so david was at that time in rehearsal for blues for mr. charlie, i don't know if

anybody in the audience see it? well, a lot of people left because they couldn't handle it. it was quite a play. actually a wonderful work of jimmy's that has never received the proper due, as much of his work. but, i was in a group performance at the amphitheater every night and then, it closed and it went to london for a little while. and then it ended. there have been resurgences of the play. in fact it was done recently where daniel lives in providence, rhode island at the trinity rep paer to theater which was exciting to see after all these years. it is wonderful play to read. it was an important play. too many people said it was poe lemmic and didn't want have to

face what the play was about which was based on amityville lynches and other lynches. it was interesting to note this was 1964, he had a hard time with actors studio and lee strausburg and the whole clan to get it done. the burgess meredith was involved in the whole process as well as a lot of great actors, including diana fence and few others. i went with david in 1967 and we lived in the house. jimmy was exiting that summer. that is where i met david lemming who written a biography of jimmy. i've known david that long. we closed the house. we went to london. we got an apartment for jimmy and his sister paula and david and i. we lived in london together in

1967, the fall of 67 through the spring of '68. then i came back to new york and in 1971 i went back over to amsterdam to live. so when i saw that jules did this wonderful book i got a copy of it, and it is a wonderful book. great photographs and apparently he was living there with barbara in those years, and i just found that out, which is really cool. so i, david and i loved amsterdam. while we lived there, jimmy bought the house at the end of '70. we went down in the fall of '71 when i was supposed to be working at a medical publishing house but i snuck away, and we, i got an old volkswagen. we drove through the mountains and fought all the way, about how to shift and not shift. i was, i was a great driver. i had been a cab driver by the way. so i knew how to drive but i did not know how to drive a stick

until i moved to europe. so we got to jimmy's, at 6:00 in the morning, and jimmy opened the door and he had all this food he had made for us, all kinds of classic soul food. he loved to cook. didn't do it often and loved to cook. he was delighted we came to welcome the house with him. we stayed for about a week, and then we drove back to amsterdam and, then i went to the house, '72, '73, '74, and then he was born in '73. and he came in '75, 6 -- >> 9. >> 9. and at least four more years. >> '80s a couple times. >> a couple times. some of these pictures here that you see, these are my photos, except for one. and they, four are in the book

that i let jules put in the book. and of course was not very good or a photographer. i was not trying to do that. i was taking it for his memory book. we didn't ever think of jimmy as famous jimmy. jimmy was jimmy, uncle jimmy, and my friend jimmy. my brother jimmy. so i had the good fortune, incredible fortune to get to know jimmy very well as a human being, you know, who was jimmy as a man, as, as a kind, human being to the world. and so opposite what the images people tried to perpetuate about him. so i got to not only admire him you but to see him as an advisor to me. like when i made decisions about where should i send daniel to school, he would weigh in on that. what did he think about the

teachers strike that i didn't strike in during 1968, when i started my high school teaching career and what did he think about that. so it was fascinating, a lot of what is going on now is exactly what was going on then and that's pretty terrifying. if anything we need -- more than we ever, ever did. so daniel would go with me in the summers. we would stay all summer because i was teaching. so i had the summer free. and we had the most extraordinary times. he treated daniel very much, it was his brother's son and loved him as, well, he couldn't love him more. he would just get a thrill. so maybe i will turn it over to my son now. if he wants to read this or i'll read it. i think you should read it. this is something jimmy wrote about daniel which david lemming gave me a copy of very late in

the day but i think it is pretty special. >> all right. just as a bit of a introduction, obviously because we all know who i am, i am daniel baldwin. james baldwin was my uncle. and actually i have to say, just as a bit of an opening, i was considered myself lucky, especially looking back on it. i was lucky because i was a plaque kid in new york city, didn't have a lot of money and got to spend summers in france. how cool is that, right? you don't know it's cool when you're two and almost drowning in front of morex and acute aqua phobia last few years. couldn't take a shower. look back on it, people asking what was it like, what was it like? it was like having a family. most of us grew up with a family. might have have had a uncle maybe not, had a cool uncle. my uncle jimmy was my real cool uncle.

that is all he was. he was the cool uncle. it was a house in france. there were pair trees in his yard. the guy had temporaries, didn't have to go to the market, there was a pair, have one. great, awesome. cats running all over the place. to me it was like little heaven, especially a little kid. even as you get older in your teen years you don't realize what is in front of you when it's there. you don't realize the influence it has on you as you get older. growing up black, jewish, in america. and i lived all over the country and nobody ever gets it right. i must be cape verde, algerian, must be middle-eastern, asian-american, depends on my outfit for the day. so i put on a costume. but my uncle had a lot to do with me understanding my identity growing up, in a sense being willing to go, that's my

mom, that's my dad, i'm in the middle. that's great. it was really made a lot of people accept who i was, not growing up not to be confused. it could ha. left, centers trying to figure out who i am. this is a little weird for me. i have read this before but never out loud to a group of people. and i'm not going to do my best james baldwin impression because i won't do him justice. at least not with watching a few businesses. intercepted memo, classified as follows in part. it will be remembered that that pole green bone part, of cores sick car, a province of france, it is the last genuine emperor of the france. cores sick cans hot temerred people are exceedingly proud of this an couldn't have imagined bonaparte would have any competition, indeed not for the

legend of bonaparte we might have had far more trouble we have had with this some what are unpredictable island. it has come to our attention that a certain daniel of the dutch english, now american province of harlem, is now in the south of france. he talks two languages and speaks in more than one. there is at work around the clock deciphering the code. his cover as americans would put it is that he is traveling with his mother. we have our belgian experts at work on this aspect of the problem. this daniel has been seen lately in monte carlo, where he exhibited this deeply suspicious friendship with the fish in the aquarium who also seemed to respond to him. i need not, i need not detail to you how delicate this is in view of our recent ongoing counterintelligence experiments with marine life. he is also familiarized himself

with the casino and it is suspected that the vulnerable princess grace has looked upon him with favor. he also spoke at length with a group of arabs. unluck cully we have not deciphered this code either. this night, july 19th, 195 was seen where he one, conversed with parrots, guided guests to and around the pool, three, was escorted by members of, [inaudible]. it was observed that the bartender, giro, smuggled him peanut and crackers. he was seen with two straus. seven, he has received gifts exceeding one enormous volleyball, several cars, one elephant, several cattle and fleet of cars. eight, he had enough candy to offer candy to almost everyone on the terrace. nine, taught a couple how to role the dice.

was seen with members of simone signoret, in the television room, i remember that, english couple invited him back. 12 the parents invited him back. 13, he spends a great deal of time with his uncle's arab gardner. 14, he appears to speak a kind of creole with his uncle's maid, valerie. she is the only person in the house with me for three years. this clearly is just the beginning. we had enough trouble with napoleon, as you remember. we may be crushed with the jell russ cores sick anns. and what will become of france. your most important immediate, et cetera, et cetera. [applause] >> that is hard to follow. i'm struck all evening the

presence of the past. how vividly he occupies this room again and how welcome we were all were at that table. first and last saw daniel when he was the size of this shoe. so, i'm going to follow jimmy's lead and because i am a writer and by definition of a writer is take more care with the language we put on a page than that which rolls eloquently off our tongues i thought i would read to you from the book to which jules kindly referred and in which he quotes in the welcome table, a book of mine that came out almost 30 years ago about our shared neighborhood. it is called, running in place, scenes from the south of france.

my wife and i in fact were in the south of france this very week and returned from it, having given -- st. paul devans a birth. the house and its history is no longer a happy one but my memories are wholly happy and i thought i would share a few pages about the book about that. i first met jimmy in inconsequentially as it were in istanbul in 1970. a play of his was running. i didn't speak any turkish. we sort of grinned at each other in turkanse once or twice. we ran into him as he was moving into this bastid and, this was

just as we were planning to leave. we had about a week. i was, i think, shocked by how warm and immediate his welcome was. in that week we probably drank oh, 40 bottles, had 30 meals. couldn't get out of town or country without his blessing, and it felt like a literally fast friendship formed. but what i want to read to you about is a period in 1974 when we returned. jimmy baldwin however remained. this time he welcomed us like long lost friends. he established work pattern and entourage. he had a chauffeur large enough to double as a bodyguard, a cook, a companion named phillipe who acted as kind of a

secretary/manager and various others whose function is less easy to describe. there would be a dancer or painter in tow, old lovers or associates from some project in the offing or projected or long past. they came from italy, america, algeria, tunisia, finland, brothers and nephews passed through. we were rarely less than six at table, and more often 10. the cook and the came and went. the men stayed on. they treated their provider with a fond deference as if his talent must be sheltered from invasive detail, the rude, matters of fact. they answered the phone and the door. they sorted mail. there was an intricate hierarchy of rank, a jockeying for position that evoked nothing so much as a provenance court, who

had known jimmy longer, better or where are or join him in the paris for the television interview or help him with the book jacket photo. he was working again on a novel, if beale street could talk. jimmy drank scotch. we drank wine. i have not as yet described the quality of kindness in his manner, the affection he expected and expressed. his face is widely known that dark, glare, broad nose. those large protruding eyes, the close fitting cap of curls starting to go white but photographs can not convey the mobile play of feature, the intensity of utterance, the sense he could contrive to give attention matters and gesture can count. there was something theatrical in baldwin's manner and it grew automatic at times. he would embark on what seemed a tirade, high-speed compilation of phrases, clearly phrased

before, improvised lecture spun out of previous speech. he stared at you unblinkingly. you couldn't turn away. he wore expensive julie and fingered it talking. he smoked. he had been holding center stage for years. you shifted in your seat. you said, yes, but -- and he would raise his imperious manicured hand. dialogue for baldwin was interrupted monologue. he wouldn't yield the platform neither willingly or long. he could speak incisively on a book he hadn't read. [laughter] but again and again he impressed me with his can any, ranging, his alert intelligence. understand me, ed say, it is important that you understand. and it was important. and you understood. my pleasure in our meetings is easily explained. here was this spokesman of his

generation and color speaking directly to me. that he took my opinion seriously, that he read and respected my work or appeared to. that he wanted us with him as often as possible. all this was flattering. when we parted late at night, jimmy would say, see you two tomorrow. if we came for lunch instead he urged us to stay on for dinner. when a passed through saint-paul, he insisted we meet. why he wanted to be with us i think is less clear. each friendship takes of the reciprocal trade agreement and i can only speculate as to baldwin's motives in the trade. he was the most sociable of solitaries. constantly attended and attended to, he seemed nonetheless alone. he wanted to hear news from home. elena, my wife, had worked several years in a rehabilitation agency for drug addicts in new york, whose clientele was largely black.

she moved easily through his own streets. though she was without exception the single woman in the house and in party of a dozen men she was given pride of place. she sat at his right hand. they liked each other i believe with unfettered immediate liking. she treated him with just the right mix you are it of impatience and respect. they embraced each other meaning it, they huddled in corningers together. there was nothing exclusionary about his attitude to women. though surrounded by adoring boys he was also a family man. i mattered to him i suppose as practitioner of a shared trade. he told me was starved for the chance to talk books, for a discussion of say henry james with someone who had read him. we talked the way most writers do, in kind of a shorthand and sign language. we asked each other always how the work had gone that day.

how this paragraph was doing and that paragraph or sane. this is lengthy recollection and i will skip to its end. we had been at his house in st. paul devans two or three times in a row. it was our turn to invite the baldwin clan. we did one thursday for lunch. they said they would come happily. there were seven, maybe nine. the two members of his part i remember as men passing through were a dancer and a publisher named willie. the former was lean, live, beautiful and black. he danced at the folle. the latter was mount news and white. we had been warned about his appetite by baldwin's cook day before. he was voracious eater who sent her to the market three times that afternoon.

i should explains we were living in the gate house, the very small gardeners cottage of a very grand estate with olive groves and switchbacks, et cetera. this was owned by an elderly woman who was nothing if not snobbish and whom i hear referred to as rosenthal. okay we made an extra pot. and never though simple takes time to prepare. we started the previous day. we cubed the lamb, browned it and fashioned the bouquet. we peel turnips, car rots and leaks. lena rosenthal knocked. she was hoping we might join her tomorrow for lunch. there were people she thought we should meet. we made our excuses.

invited her in as she could see we too were preparing a meal. we were there for unable to join or invite her because we owed a friend a thank you. i remember not naming his name. part of this was inverse snob snobbery. [laughter] a distaste for glitter by association. and part the suspicion had lena known baldwin was coming we should have to invite her also. they would have been water and oil. but anyway, she told us she hoped we would take in our wash. it hung on the clothes line outside. she wanted to walk by the house and let her friends take photographs. they were passionate photographers. her friend were distinguished, she said. they were the last of the happensburg and last of or perhaps the figs and hoenstine

or collateral branches. in any case they were old and distinguished and wouldn't appreciate the laundry on our line. she hoped we would ready the house. we promised. we made the second navar. bought extra dozen bottles and three additional from the baker and waited for jimmy to come. he himself didn't drive. he had, however, purchased a brand new mercedes, dark brown and substantial just short of stretch limousine size. his driver knew how to use a clutch. [laughter] his driver would be working that day. he had assured me. they had no need of our little tattered car. he was bringing phillipe, billy, willie, and bernard. at the appointed hour we were ready. a car came. the day was overcast. what pulled into the parking space behind was not jimmy's

mercedes but an ancient gray renault. it was followed fineraly by a d irs ovaux. leila rosen thal emerged. her guests emerged. they were slow and small and bent. process of arrival took some time. the doors opened, faltered closed. the last of the of hapsbergs carried cameras in advance with umbrellas and cames. they shuffled off to the villa. they kissed one another's hands. as soon as they were out of sight we heard another car. the deep-throated growl of gears, high hum of power and harness the trumpeting bravado of the horn and baldwin's mercedes roared up. [laughter]. it spat and raked gravel. it rocked on its brakes. fairly pirro wetted in the sun.

four doors flung wide in unison. our company had come. they were dressed for the occasion, grandly. they wore boaters and boots, their boots gleamed. bernard was especially splendid. he emerged twirling his scarf and waste sash of pink silk. he did a few dance steps and flung his hat high and extended his hands for applause. we applauded. jimmy embraced us, we him. the chauffeur was not happy with the switch-backs from the entry drive. they are badly backed he said. he brought his lunch along. elected to stay with the car. he stood arms folded glowering through the olive groves. he was danish, thick an toll lid and impervious to charm. what a charming place, the publisher proclaimed. we piloted them in. this wasn't easy. they swarmed. they raced to the crest of the

meadow and walked tiptoe along the rim of the -- a raised wall. they approved the view. they clatterred threw our little house, exclaiming at the style of it, posing on the bedroom balcony, give me "the simple life." [laughter]. let's have laviros. phillipe brought flowers. garlanded elena, jimmy, and bertrand. we emptied four bottles of wine by the time we settled toilet. the nevra was a success. publisher willie approved. audibly he sighed. he sat back and rolled up his sleeves, which pot is for me asked? there was pate. there was much laughter, celebration, praise for the salad and bread. the dining room could barely contain us. we rolled about the table like litter of puppies suck link, jostling, sausages and cheese, and fruit an cake.

a shadow appeared at the window. i looked up. leila rosenthal was outside by the car. she and her four companions were inching to the house. they had their cameras at shoulder level focusing an it pained them clearly to approach. we must have looked to them like spengler's nightmare realized, the decline of the west. the beaming black man at the center. the array around him. voluminous white man with loaves in his hand. young host plying he have one with wine. pyramid of bottles, ruch kestness of festivity, mercedes were polish ared and hard to focus on and explain. i could see lilo explaining. i do not know how she explained. there was no laundry however. they circled warily. we didn't invite them in.

they moved to the back of the house. [applause] >> nicholas, that was wonderful, thank you very much. part of this is excerpted in the book with his permission because i found it so, so important what he did. are there any questions now for the people of the panel or my, me or -- you have to leave? okay. bye. adi e.u. questions from the public? to anybody on the panel or to me or to? [inaudible] >> we have kept you all enough. the rest is silence. thank you all for coming and having patience. really wonderful. [applause] we all appreciate it.

the family, the literary friends and the publisher of the book. the book culture, cody who did such a good job in organizing this, thank you very much. [applause] >> so, we're going to real quick set jules up front to sign copies for anybody who wants him to. and, again, thank you everybody for coming and celebrating this part of james baldwin's legacy. thank you. [applause]

>> this is booktv on c-span2, television for serious readers. here's our prime-time line-up. tonight, starting at 8:30 p.m. eastern, a look at first lady eleanor roosevelt. and at 10:00, sandra cisneros delivers the fairfax prize lecture. we wrap up the monday prime-time line-up at 11:30 hillsdale college professor, bradley birzer, talks about his biography of conservative writer russell kirk. this happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> modern presidents are so obsessed with talking and campaigning and going places, that they fail to take the time to think about the third step of leadership, which is, implementing policy. in fact i start the book with a quote from thos