James Baldwin was a uniquely prophetic voice in American letters.
His brilliant and provocative essays made him the literary voice of
the Civil Rights Era, and they continue to speak with powerful
urgency to us today, whether in the swirling debate over the Black
Lives Matter movement or in the words of Raoul Peck's documentary
"I Am Not Your Negro." Edited by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, the
Library of America's Collected Essays is the most comprehensive
gathering of Baldwin's nonfiction ever published. With burning
passion and jabbing, epigrammatic wit, Baldwin fearlessly
articulated issues of race and democracy and American identity in
such famous essays as "The Harlem Ghetto," "Everybody's Protest
Novel," "Many Thousands Gone," and "Stranger in the Village." Here
are the complete texts of his early landmark collections, Notes of
a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961), which
established him as an essential intellectual voice of his time,
fusing in unique fashion the personal, the literary, and the
political. "One writes," he stated, "out of one thing only--one's
own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces
from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can
possibly give." With singular eloquence and unblinking sharpness of
observation he lived up to his credo: "I want to be an honest man
and a good writer." The classic The Fire Next Time (1963), perhaps
the most influential of his writings, is his most penetrating
analysis of America's racial divide and an impassioned call to "end
the racial nightmare...and change the history of the world." The
later volumes No Name in the Street (1972) and The Devil Finds Work
(1976) chart his continuing response to the social and political
turbulence of his era and include his remarkable works of film
criticism. A further 36 essays--nine of them previously
uncollected--include some of Baldwin's earliest published writings,
as well as revealing later insights into the language of
Shakespeare, the poetry of Langston Hughes, and the music of Earl
Hines. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural
organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary
heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's
best and most significant writing. The Library of America series
includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that
average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings,
and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that
will last for centuries.
General
Imprint: |
The Library of America
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 1998 |
First published: |
February 1998 |
Authors: |
James Baldwin
|
Editors: |
Toni Morrison
|
Dimensions: |
210 x 132 x 32mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Sewn / Cloth over boards / With dust jacket
|
Pages: |
869 |
Edition: |
New |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-883011-52-9 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-883011-52-3 |
Barcode: |
9781883011529 |
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