This stunningly personal document and extraordinary history of the turbulent sixties and early seventies displays James Baldwin’s fury and despair more deeply than any of his other works.
In vivid detail he remembers the Harlem childhood that shaped his early consciousness, the later events that scored his heart with pain—the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns
in Europe and in Hollywood, and his return to the American South to confront a violent America face-to-face.
This stunningly personal document and extraordinary history of the turbulent sixties and early seventies displays James Baldwin’s fury and despair more deeply than any of his other works.
In vivid detail he remembers the Harlem childhood that shaped his early consciousness, the later events that scored his heart with pain—the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns
in Europe and in Hollywood, and his return to the American South to confront a violent America face-to-face.
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
“If Van Gogh was our nineteenth-century artist-saint, James Baldwin [is] our twentieth-century one.” —Michael Ondaatje, New York Times bestselling author, praise for the author
“More eloquent than W. E. B. Du Bois, more penetrating than Richard Wright…It contains truth that cannot be denied.” —Atlantic Monthly
“Characteristically beautiful…He has not himself lost access to the sources of his being—which is what makes him read and awaited by perhaps a wider range of people than any other major American writer.” —Nation
“Baldwin’s 1972 volume is a right-between-the-eyes commentary on American racism in the 1950s and 1960s, capped by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil-rights figures. Still as powerful and important as the day it was written.” —Library Journal
James Baldwin (1924–1987), acclaimed New York Times bestselling author, was educated in New York. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, received excellent reviews and
was immediately recognized as establishing a profound and permanent new voice in American letters. The appearance of The Fire Next Time in 1963, just as the civil rights movement was
exploding across the American South, galvanized the nation and continues to reverberate as perhaps the most prophetic and defining statement ever written of the continuing costs of Americans’
refusal to face their own history. It became a national bestseller, and Baldwin was featured on the cover of Time. The next year, he was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and
Letters and collaborated with the photographer Richard Avedon on Nothing Personal, a series of portraits of America intended as a eulogy for the slain Medger Evers. His other collaborations
include A Rap on Race with Margaret Mead and A Dialogue with the poet–activist Nikki Giovanni. He also adapted Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X into One Day When
I Was Lost. He was made a commander of the French Legion of Honor a year before his death, one honor among many he achieved in his life.
DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a copyright protection for digital media. While much of Audio Editions’s content is DRM free, and allows for usage across platforms, select products on Audio Editions are required by publishers to have DRM protected files. These products will be playable exclusively on the AudioEditions.com apps, available for iOS and Android devices.
To listen to this title you will need our latest app
1660501726
1572557363
We use cookies to improve our website and give you the best service possible. By using our website, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn more here.