A new biography puts Baldwin’s sexuality – and the men he loved – front and centre A new biography puts Baldwin’s sexuality – and the men he loved – front and centre T oday, James Baldwin’s legacy seems assured, but this wasn’t always the case. His critical reputation, already on the wane in his lifetime, declined after his death in 1987. On the publication of the Library of America’s Collected Essays and Early Novels & Stories a decade later, Michael Anderson, writing in the New York Times ,