If Beale Street Could Talk

James Baldwin

Delta Trade Paperbacks, 2000 - Fiction - 166 pages

Like the blues--sweet, sad, and full of truth--this masterful work of fiction rocks us with powerful emotions. In it are anger and pain, but above all, love--the affirmative love of a woman for her man, the sustaining love of the black family. Fonny, a talented young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's infamous Tombs. But his girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him, and to have his baby, in this starkly realistic tale... a powerful indictment of American concepts of justice and punishment in our time.

Contents

• Section 1: 9
• Section 2: 51
• Section 3: 88

About the author

James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, in New York. Baldwin's father was a pastor who subjected his children to poverty, abuse, and religious fanaticism. As a result, many of Baldwin's recurring themes, such as alienation and rejection, are attributable to his upbringing. Living the life of a starving artist, Baldwin went through numerous jobs, including dishwasher, office boy, factory worker, and waiter. In 1948, he moved to France, where much work originated. Baldwin published Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1953. A largely autobiographical work, it tells of the religious awakening of a fourteen-year-old. In addition to his childhood experiences, his experiences as a black man and a homosexual provided inspiration for such works as Giovanni's Room, Nobody Knows My Name, and Another Country. Baldwin holds a distinguished place in American history as one of the foremost writers of both black and gay literature. He was an active participant in the Civil Rights movement. Baldwin succumbed to cancer on December 1, 1987.

Bibliographic information

• Title: If Beale Street Could Talk
• Author: James Baldwin
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Delta Trade Paperbacks, 2000
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Mar 4, 2008
• ISBN: 0385334591, 9780385334594
• Length: 166 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / African American & Black / General; Fiction / City Life; Fiction / Classics; Fiction / General; Fiction / Literary