James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath and Kurt Vonnegut: Their High School Writing
For so many of us, high school was an exploratory period — a chance to find what we love and learn how to do it. For James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath and Kurt Vonnegut, their high school offered a chance to hone their skills via literary magazine and newspaper. By the time they graduated, they’d grown used to seeing their name in print, but, as you may see from their writing below, they were still finding their voice.
James Baldwin
“The man was no longer young, and he stooped a little as he hurried. His hands were large and rough, and he carried shrapnel in one leg. His face was scarred with the scars of many battles, and his eyes were bleak and hard.” — From “Incident in London,” a short story by Baldwin published in the spring 1941 edition of The Magpie, Dewitt Clinton’s student literary magazine.
During all of his early struggles — an overbearing father, losing faith in a God, questioning his sexuality as he became keenly aware of the societal limitations put upon young Black men — Baldwin, as high school friend Art Moore put it, “always had faith in himself as a writer.”
