Talking at the GatesAn intimate portrait of Baldwin's mythic life. James Baldwin was one of the most incisive and influential American writers of the twentieth century. Active in the civil rights movement and open about his homosexuality, Baldwin was celebrated for his eloquent analyses of social unrest in his essays and for his daring portrayals of sexuality and interracial relationships in his fiction. By the time of his death in 1987, both his fiction and nonfiction