The Moving Letter James Baldwin Received from His Childhood Teacher at the Peak of His Fame and His Heartbreak

In early 1934, a twenty-four-year-old graduate student at Columbia Teachers College took an internship teaching drama and producing student plays at PS 24 in Harlem. Among her young charges at that “dreadful ancient New York schoolhouse,” as she would later recall, was a ten-year-old boy she was astonished to find reading, like her, Dickens. Their conversations quickly made her realize that “here was an exceptional and brilliant boy.” Her name was Orilla Miller, though he called her Bill. His name was Jimmy, though to the world he would become James Baldwin. Bill started giving Jimmy more b...