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The Fire Next Time

James Baldwin

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English
Penguin Classics
25 January 1990
The landmark work on race in America from James Baldwin, whose life and words are immortalised in the Oscar-nominated film, I am Not Your Negro:

"We, the black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nation."


James Baldwin's impassioned plea to "end the racial nightmare" in America was a bestseller when it appeared in 1963, galvanising a nation and giving voice to the emerging civil rights movement.

Told in the form of two intensely personal 'letters', The Fire Next Time is at once a powerful evocation of Baldwin's early life in Harlem, and an excoriating condemnation of the terrible legacy of racial injustice.

"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." - The Sunday Times

"The great poet-prophet of the civil rights movement... his seminal work." The Guardian
By:  
Imprint:   Penguin Classics
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Volume:   436
Dimensions:   Height: 199mm,  Width: 130mm,  Spine: 7mm
Weight:   79g
ISBN:   9780140182750
ISBN 10:   0140182756
Series:   Penguin Modern Classics
Pages:   96
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

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 for The Fire Next Time

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. -- Colm Toibin * 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 *


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