James Baldwin: Early Novels and Stories

A novelist, essayist, playwright, and public intellectual, James Baldwin's writings on the subject of race in America undeniably made him one of the greatest African American writers of the 20th century. As the civil rights movement gained momentum in the two decades following World War II, Baldwin landed squarely in the public eye, and his prose communicated the hope and frustration of the fight for racial equality. In James Baldwin: Early Novels and Stories, editor Toni Morrison draws heavily on Baldwin's early work, including his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, as well as Giovanni's Room, which was praised by the New York Times for its "unusual candor ... and intensity." As pertinent today as it was some 30 years ago, the fiction found in this collection is powerful, eloquent, and a fitting tribute to a consummate writer.



With burning passion, the authority of experience, and a sharp, epigrammatic wit, these essays articulate issues of race, democracy, and American identity. This edition--the most comprehensive gathering of Baldwin's nonfiction ever published--presents the complete texts of the landmark collections "Notes of a Native Son" (1955) and "Nobody Knows My Name" (1961); "The Fire Next Time" (1963), a classic analysis of America's racial divide; "No Name in the Street" (1972); and "The Devil Finds Work" (1976); and 36 more essays, including nine never before collected.


Genre: Literary Fiction