Literary Exiles: New Lives of Jessica Mitford & James Baldwin

The event is hybrid and free of charge. An in-person reception will begin at 4:30 PM. 

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This panel welcomes acclaimed biographers Carla Kaplan (Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford) and Nicholas Boggs (Baldwin: A Love Story) for a discussion of two influential writers, both of whom were shaped by exile.  Mitford, a fierce intellect and British aristocrat, rebelled against her family's fascism to become a communist muckraker in America. Baldwin, fleeing the bigotry and poverty of New York, sought personal and literary freedom in Paris.  His prolific writings always spoke truth to power.  Despite their vastly different origins, both writers shared a comparable commitment to social justice and a refusal to be silenced.  Kaplan and Boggs, whose bond as former professor and student began decades ago at Yale, offer new perspectives on these essential twentieth-century lives.