Autograph postcard signed to Beauford Delaney (1901–1979)

Baldwin considered his career to have begun the moment when, at age 15, he met the painter Beauford Delaney. “Beauford was the first walking, living proof, for me, that a Black man could be an artist,” he later wrote. Delaney also became perhaps Baldwin’s most important friend—a “spiritual father,” as Baldwin said.

This postcard to Delaney documents Baldwin’s excitement after the first performance of his play, The Amen Corner, at Howard University. “Play did very well here,” he writes, “great reviews, played to standing room only, made my first speech in a little theatre.” Baldwin’s choice of postcard likely conveyed a playful wink, as the homoerotic overtones of the El Greco painting would not have been lost on either of the two friends.