Writers Block

In 1965, Baldwin purchased a remodeled rowhouse on the Upper West Side as a home for his mother and other family members, as well as a base for himself when he was in town. From the mid-60s until his death in 1987, Baldwin traveled almost constantly, spending memorable stretches in Istanbul and establishing a beautiful light-filled home with a garden in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southern France. When in New York, he favored Mikell’s jazz club on the corner of 97th Street and Columbus Avenue, where his brother David was a bartender. He held a screening there of his 1982 documentary, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” directed by Dick Fontaine and Pat Harley, which was attended by Toni Morrison, who also lived for a short time at the home on West 71st Street. I