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
collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were
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.
"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
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