Baldwin’s Language

One essential element of James Baldwin’s transformation into “an icon” with “an aura of infallibility” is overlooked in Louis Menand’s fascinating discussion of the man (A Critic at Large, August 18th). What sets Baldwin’s essays apart and keeps them alive (at least in the academy) is not just what he had to say but how perfectly he said it—in his precise, measured, and rhythmic prose. “Time,” writes W. H. Auden, “Worships language, and forgives / Everyone by whom it lives.” Baldwin, like Joan Didion and Loren Eisley, sculpted twentieth-century American English to articulate his vision of the world so distinctively that it feels indelible.

Douglas J. McReynolds

Cedar Falls, Iowa

Past Perfect

Leslie Jamison’s article about research into perfectionism highlighted an i

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