About the Author

Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin had an early career as a teenage preacher. He lived in Paris from 1948-1956 and his first novels, the autobiographical GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and GIOVANNI'S ROOM established him as a promising novelist and anticipated some of the themes of his later works, such as racism and sexuality. He became a prominent spokesperson for racial equality, especially during the civil rights movement. He lived in France during his last years. Baldwin died in 1987.

Reviews

Riveting . . . part of Baldwin's enduring power is that he was not a political thinker. He was interested in the soul's dark spaces much more than in the body politic.
*Telegraph*

The great poet-prophet of the civil rights movement ... his seminal work
*Guardian*

Sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle . . . all presented in searing, brilliant prose
*The New York Times Book Review*

Baldwin writes with great passion ... it reeks of truth, as the ghettoes of New York and London, Chicago and Manchester reek of our hypocrisy
*Sunday Times*

A true prophet . . . his thought and its utterance are nothing less than majestical
*The New York Times*