Daylight Come

Name: Daylight Come
Price: 65 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780593652701

Harry Belafonte and the World He Made

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, Henry Louis Gates Jr.

$65

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

The Penguin Press
04 August 2026

Music

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times

""Daylight Come takes us to places no biography in recent memory has . . . This book fills the heart and mind, and is essential reading for our times."" -Hilton Als

A vibrant, revealing portrait of the ""King of Calypso,"" whose extraordinary performing career and activism helped remake America through the civil rights era and beyond

Even three years after his death, Harry Belafonte is everywhere. You can't go to a wedding, or to a sports arena, without hearing ""Day-O,"" ""Jump in the Line,"" or ""Jamaica Farewell."" The Harlem-born son of Caribbean immigrants, Belafonte turned the folk music of the islands into American pop-and shaped the fantasy of Caribbean life that endures as an ideal and as a multibillion-dollar tourist industry. Belafonte released the first million-selling LP in history. He was America's first Black movie star, the first Black person to produce a prime-time special on network TV, and the first to win an Emmy Award. He was once the highest-paid Black performer of all time, beloved by Black and white fans alike, even under segregation. His artistic career helped create the pop culture of the twentieth century-and his political activism reshaped the course of American history.

In this sparkling new biography, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro brings Belafonte's personality and music vibrantly to life, following him from rags to riches and from Harlem to Jamaica to the March on Washington. Jelly-Schapiro takes us inside Belafonte's lifelong brotherhood with Sidney Poitier, his friendship with Fidel Castro, his collaboration with Nelson Mandela, and the sometimes shocking therapeutic relationships his difficult upbringing necessitated. At the heart of the story is Belafonte's bond with Martin Luther King Jr., whose cause Belafonte would champion for the rest of his life. That commitment to the greater good would sustain him and benefit untold numbers-and would come at a cost.

The indelible story of an American icon-and a provocative study of authenticity, fame, and conviction-Daylight Come is, like Harry Belafonte himself, brimming with style and consequence.

By: Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Imprint: The Penguin Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 209mm, Width: 139mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 474g
ISBN: 9780593652701
ISBN 10: 0593652703
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 04 August 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose books include Names of New York- Discovering the City's Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names; Island People- The Caribbean and the World; and, with Rebecca Solnit, Nonstop Metropolis- A New York City Atlas. His work appears regularly in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books. Jelly-Schapiro teaches journalism at New York University and is director of publishing at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, where he hosts the popular Author Talks series and is coeditor in chief of Pioneer Works Broadcast.

Reviews for Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made

“Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's Daylight Come takes us to places no biography in recent memory has. Through the discipline of research, and through love, Jelly-Schapiro's far-reaching portrait of Harry Belafonte, one of the twentieth century's greatest stars, is also the story of the bitter effects of colonialism and segregation, and the human desire and need to transcend both, the better to become a self. This book fills the heart and mind, and is essential reading for our times.” —Hilton Als “Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is one of those rare writers who bridges worlds—between deep scholarship and gorgeous prose, between islands and mainlands, between big ideas and precise details, between history and possibility.” —Rebecca Solnit “A welcome biography of an artist and activist who left an enduring legacy.” —Kirkus