To escape racism in America, James Baldwin fled to Saint-Paul de Vence, France, in 1970, where he lived in self-imposed exile until his death in 1987. This book focuses on this seventeen-year period of his life and literature. Author Jules B. Farber presents "life with Jimmy" through more than seventy interviews of personal reminisces with well-known literary figures, musicians, artists, and celebrities, such as Sidney Poitier, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Bill Wyman, Harry Belafonte, Jr., George Wein, and many others. Farber also reached out to locals in Saint-Paul de Vence who adopted Baldwin into their village.
Baldwin's oeuvre and lifestyle during this time was concentrated in this Provençal setting. These personal, and sometimes intimate, recollections provide an overview of the diversity of Baldwin's writing, the details of his social interactions, the magnitude of his literary relevance, and a first-time examination of his integration as the first black man in Saint-Paul de Vence.
