Nicholas Boggs still remembers seeing a poster of James Baldwin on the wall of his eight grade classroom. For a time, he thought that was his first interaction with the acclaimed writer and civil rights advocate.

But a phone call to his eighth grade teacher made clear that Mr. Baldwin made an even bigger impression on Mr. Boggs at a young age. He had dressed up in a suit to come to class and give a presentation about Mr. Baldwin’s life, his former teacher reminded him.

The author’s life-long admiration for Mr. Baldwin has culminated in Baldwin: A Love Story, the first major biography about the writer’s life in over 30 years. The book will be published on August 19.

Mr. Baldwin wrote in many mediums, and often based his writing on his life experiences. His work focuses on issues of race, masculinity, sexuality and class, all written from the standpoint of complex character relationships and narratives.

Mr. Boggs said he first decided to write about Mr. Baldwin in 2003, when he discovered that Yoran Cazac, the illustrator of Mr. Baldwin’s children’s novel Little Man, Little Man, was still alive. Though that was very early on in the research process, it sparked a years-long research process. Mr. Boggs co-edited a new edition of the children’s story in 2018.

Writing the biography became his full-time job in 2018. Research required traveling in Mr. Baldwin’s footsteps, speaking to his friends and associates, and researching various archives.

“Part of what made this book possible is that there’s been a lot of incredible, scholarly work done on James Baldwin in the last years,” Mr. Boggs said.

Rather than a typical beginning, middle and end of someone’s life, the biography details Baldwin’s life through his love affairs and relationships, include painters Beauford Delaney and Lucien Happersberger.

Mr. Boggs’s travels took him to Corsica, where Mr. Baldwin tried to take his own life. On that trip, Mr. Bogggs took his mother with him, who turned out to be a big help in opening doors.

“We saw, on the terrace, a woman doing her laundry. What do I do? Intrepid biographer that I am, I jump behind a bush,” he said with a laugh. “But what does my mother do? My mother goes ‘Bonjour,’ and next thing I know, we’re in the house. I was able to see where Baldwin was writing, where he stayed, where he jumped over the ledge.”

Another poignant moment while researching took place when he visited Beatrice Cazac, Yoran’s wife. She showed him the archives she had saved, one of which was a love letter Mr. Baldwin had written to her husband.

“She sat there and translated the seven-page love poem from James Baldwin to her husband, from French into English for me as the sun set over the Tuscan hills,” Mr. Boggs recalled. “I was like, this is quite a moment.”

The 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room is one of Mr. Boggs’s favorites. It was the first work of Mr. Baldwin’s that he encountered.

“My twin sister had a copy of Giovanni’s Room and I stole it from her, didn’t tell her I was reading it,” Mr. Boggs said. “Because I was gay, but didn’t quite understand that yet, the book really spoke to me. So that was a very meaningful book.”

While writing the biography, Mr. Boggs grew to appreciate how influential the people in Mr. Baldwin’s were to him, thus leading to the title of the book.

“Sometimes we see Baldwin in the popular public consciousness [of having] a kind of narrative of having this tragic life,” he said. “I think those have some truth to them, but I also think that he lived a very rich and interesting life that actually was full of love, and I think that’s really important to remember.”

Mr. Boggs said he is excited to add his book to the long line of Baldwin research, and welcome those books still to come by other writers.

“I always felt that Baldwin belongs to everyone. He belongs to the world,” he said. “It’s the first big biography of him in many years, but there’s going to be many more. There have been great biographies before. All of them belong to the world.”

Nicholas Boggs will take part in a panel discussion on Saturday, August 2 at 12:15 p.m. The talk is entitled Out of Place in America: Marginalized Identities and also features Danzy Senna, Joseph Lee and Martha Jones; moderated by Michele Norris.

On Sunday, August 3 at 10:30 a.m., he will be featured at an Author Talk, in conversation with Gabi Starr.