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During one of his many visits to Turkey, James Baldwin tried his hand (successfully) at directing a play, the Turkish production of Canadian playwright John Herbert's Fortune and Men's Eyes, which ran in Istanbul from 1969 to 1970. By focusing on hitherto unknown sources on this topic that were published in the Turkish press, this essay attempts to provide a more complete understanding of how Baldwin left his mark on the Turkish theatre scene.
James Baldwin's disenchantment with the racial situation in America led him to often seek refuge abroad, especially in Paris. By 1961, the author had found himself a third home, this time in Istanbul, the ancient city bridging the East and the West. Following repeated invitations from his Turkish friend Engin Cezzar, whom he had met in 1958 in New York at the Actors Studio workshop production of Giovanni's Room, Baldwin first visited Istanbul in October 1961. This visit was to be followed by many others over the next two decades. When he wanted to focus on his writing, Baldwin escaped to Istanbul, where for example he finished one of his masterpieces, Another Country, and worked on another, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone. In Turkey, Baldwin could enjoy a respite from his celebrity status-a problem that haunted him both in America and elsewhere in Europe-and his racial identity. He felt at home in this exotic land where he was not treated as a "Negro" and where his Turkish friends affectionately nicknamed him "Arap" ("Arab"). Life in Turkey opened up new possibilities for Baldwin. An aspiring dramatist with two plays to his credit-Blues for Mister Charlie (1964) and The Amen Corner (1968)-he tried his hand (successfully) at directing a play, the Turkish production of Canadian playwright John Herbert's Fortune and Men 's Eyes, which ran in Istanbul from 1969 to 1970. Thus, Baldwin's one-time directorial effort was staged in a foreign country and in a language he did not understand. David Leeming's biography James Baldwin (1994) and Magdalena Zaborowska's book James Baldwin's Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile (2009) both offer especially helpful accounts of this period in Baldwin's life and career. In this essay, I will address the gaps in the research that has so far been conducted...