The Price of the Ticket
The collected non-fiction, assembled two years after this and published the same year as his last book of reportage.
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Jimmy's Blues
The only book of poems James Baldwin published, brought out in London in 1983 when he was fifty-nine and almost nobody knew he wrote them.
- 1983
- 120
About James Baldwin
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeA short collection of poems, published by Michael Joseph in London in 1983 and by St. Martin's Press in New York two years later. Baldwin had written poetry all his life and published very little of it. The book opens with "Staggerlee wonders", a long poem about American violence and American self-description, and moves through much smaller pieces — a birthday poem, a poem for his mother, poems set in Munich and Monte Carlo. It is the only volume of verse he brought out in his lifetime.
The story, in more detail
The poems are not offcuts from the prose. They are shorter-breathed than his essays and much plainer, and several of them say things about desire and about his own life that the essays approach at an angle.
"Staggerlee wonders" opens the book and takes up a large share of it. Staggerlee is the figure from the old American ballad, and Baldwin uses him to look at what the country tells itself. It is the one poem here that sounds like the essays.
Beacon Press reissued the collection in 2014 as Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems, with an introduction by Nikky Finney. That edition adds the six poems of Gypsy, a limited edition of 325 copies that was still in production when Baldwin died in 1987. Between the two, it is now possible to read all the poetry he published.
Themes and analysis
Winter birds, an onward journey
In "Munich, Winter 1973," waiting makes even the speaker's own identity unfamiliar. The repeated strangeness of house, bed and town reaches inward before the poem looks outward at the birds. Their circling does not offer an escape from uncertainty: weather, darkness and the journey ahead remain dangerous. What changes is the model of endurance. The starlings use the capacities they have and sustain one another in flight. Seen from the room of an impatient lover, their movement turns anticipation toward mutual responsibility. Companionship is not a guarantee of safe arrival; it is something practiced while the outcome remains unknown.
The weight of giving
"The giver" unsettles the distinction between a capable benefactor and helpless recipients. Its recurring rhymes make giving sound inseparable from living, but the poem quickly asks whether a gift can reach those who need it. The giver shares their uncertainty and finds no easy relief in prayer or self-reproach. In the closing turn, attention moves from what has been offered to what the speaker owes. That debt cannot be neatly measured or discharged by a single generous act. The poem leaves generosity answerable to others without pretending that good intentions alone can overcome their deprivation.
Why we recommend it
It is Baldwin without the argument
The essays are built to persuade. The poems are not, and several of them are simply about wanting someone, or about being fifty-two, or about his mother.
"Staggerlee wonders" is worth the book
Long, angry and funnier than it first looks, and the one poem here that stands beside the prose.
It is very short
The current edition runs 120 pages including the Gypsy poems, and the original was 64. Almost nobody knows this book exists, which is the main reason to pick it up.
What this book explores
Timeline
1983
Michael Joseph publishes Jimmy's Blues in London. Baldwin is fifty-nine.
1985
St. Martin's Press brings out the American edition with two further poems.
1987
Baldwin dies at Saint-Paul-de-Vence with the limited-edition Gypsy still in production.
2014
Beacon Press reissues the book as Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems, adding the Gypsy poems, with an introduction by Nikky Finney.
Book editions
- Hardcover
- Michael Joseph
- 1983
- 9780718122379
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- St. Martin's Press
- 1985
- Paperback
- Beacon Press
- 2014
- 9780807084861
Reader reviews
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The last novel, from 1979, and the closest the fiction comes to the register of these poems.
Read our takeJimmy's Blues: frequently asked questions
Did James Baldwin write poetry?
Yes, throughout his life, though he published almost none of it. Jimmy's Blues, which came out in 1983, is the only collection of poems he published, and it is short.
What is in Jimmy's Blues?
It opens with "Staggerlee wonders", a long poem about American violence and the stories the country tells about itself, and follows it with much shorter pieces on desire, family and travel, including "Munich, Winter 1973", "Le sporting-club de Monte Carlo" and "Inventory/On Being 52".
What is the difference between Jimmy's Blues and Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems?
The second is the 2014 Beacon Press reissue. It reprints the 1983 collection and adds the six poems of Gypsy, a limited edition of 325 copies that was still being produced when Baldwin died in 1987, along with an introduction by the poet Nikky Finney. It is the edition currently in print.
When and where was it first published?
Michael Joseph published it in London in 1983 at 64 pages. The American edition came from St. Martin's Press in 1985 and contained two poems the British edition did not.
Is it a good place to start with Baldwin?
No. Start with The Fire Next Time or Notes of a Native Son for the essays, or Giovanni's Room for the fiction. The poems make most sense once you already know the voice they belong to.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Jimmy's Blues, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Munich, Winter 1973 (for Y.S.)
PoetryBeacon Press; authorized reproduction by the Poetry Foundation, 2014Used forPrimary text for the added reading of waiting and the starlings' mutual support, in the authorized Beacon 2014 reproduction. The analysis concerns the poem's speaker, not a documented biographical scene.
2The giver (for Berdis)
PoetryBeacon Press; authorized reproduction by the Poetry Foundation, 2014Used forPrimary text for the added reading of generosity, uncertainty and obligation, in the authorized Beacon 2014 reproduction. The illustration remains a symbolic reconstruction.
3James Baldwin papers, 1936–1992 (Sc MG 936), finding aid
ArchiveSchomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public LibraryUsed forUsed to place Jimmy's Blues within James Baldwin's published work and verify its bibliographic context.
4Chicago Public Library — James Baldwin Biography
WebsiteUsed forUsed for independent biographical, archival, or historical context surrounding James Baldwin's career and the period in which Jimmy's Blues appeared.
5Baldwin in France
WebsiteNational Museum of African American History and CultureUsed forUsed to cross-check authorship, chronology, and the work's place in James Baldwin's wider catalogue.
6Baldwin, James Arthur
WebsiteThe Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford UniversityUsed forUsed to verify James Baldwin's bibliography and place Jimmy's Blues within the broader chronology of James Baldwin's career.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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