The Fire Next Time [Paperback]

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963,The Fire Next Timegalvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two letters, written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described byThe New York Times Book Reviewas sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose, The Fire Next Timestands as a classic of our literature. Basically the finest essay I’ve ever read. . . . Baldwin refused to hold anyone’s hand. He was both direct and beautiful all at once. He did not seem to write to convince you. He wrote beyond you. --Ta-Nehisi Coates

So eloquent in its passion and so scorching in its candor that it is bound to unsettle any reader. --The Atlantic

JAMES BALDWIN(1924-1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel,Go Tell It on the Mountain,appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collectionsNotes of a Native SonandThe Fire Next Timewere bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.

US