Typescript draft with holograph emendations, “Notes of a Native Son”

Like his first novel, Baldwin’s first major play, The Amen Corner, is informed by his teenage experiences with the church. A teaser for the first production—performed by the Howard University Players—appears in an issue of Howard University News (on view nearby).

Baldwin used the blank backs of extra copies of the newsletter to draft his essay, “Notes of a Native Son,” which appeared in the collection of the same name and deals with the death of his stepfather. This typescript page presents a memory from Baldwin’s youth minister days in which his stepfather, in a rare moment of real conversation between the two, asks: “You’d rather write than preach, wouldn’t you?”