The Fire Next Time

James Baldwin

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Sep 17, 2013 - Political Science - 128 pages

An official Oprah Winfrey’s “The Books That Help Me Through” selection

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation, gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today.  

"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
 
At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.

What people are saying

User Review -

Book covers the mind of a man viewing and trying to navigate a country that is segregated and unequal. He points out the hypocrisy that is found in nearly every institution in the U.S. regarding racial equality and justice. He does not show hare for his oppressors as individuals, but indeed shows burning contempt for the system that allows for the problems to exist. Sadly he wonders if it will ever change...... 

About the author

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Fire Next Time; Vintage International
• Author: James Baldwin
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013
• ISBN: 0804149720, 9780804149723
• Length: 128 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black; Political Science / Civil Rights; Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations