James Baldwin Early Novels And Stories [Hardcover]

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.

Early Novels and Stories features the complete text of Baldwin's novels Go Tell It On the Mountain, Giovanni's Room, Another Country, and his short story collection Going To Meet the Man. Most of Baldwin's writing is autobiographical and deals with his coming of age as a black man in America and later as an expatriate in France, as well as coming to terms with his homosexuality. Written between 1953 and 1965, these stories broke down walls. Collected Essays offers an impressive array of Baldwin's nonfiction and includes nine essays never before collected. Presented here are the complete texts of the collections Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, The Fire Next Time, No Name in the Street, and The Devil Finds Work. Topics range from racism to literature to social issues. Along with corrected texts, these feature scholarly notes, a chronicle of the author's life, and more. Both volumes are essential for all collections.
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Baldwin's gift to our literary tradition is that rarest of treasures, a rhetoric of fiction ^and^ the essay that is, at once, Henry Jamesian and King Jamesian. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Baldwin's work is infused with a profound tenderness, passion for humanity, life. To love so well--having lived within a reign of terror, and knowing another one is on the other side of the door--is a triumph, and an absolute necessity for revolutionary movement. -- The Nation, Michelle Cliff

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.

The Library of America is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic).