Books with author James Baldwin

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. 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. 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 our literature.

In this honest and stunning novel, now a major motion picture directed by Barry Jenkins, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice. Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions–affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

"Mountain," Baldwin said, "is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else." Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.

This timeless collection of short stories encompasses a vast history of famous literary heroes and their romantic tales of bravery, perseverance and compassion. Beginning with Socrates and the ancient Greeks, James Baldwin narrates the stories of larger-than-life figures like Leonidas and the Brave Three Hundred, Napoleon Bonaparte, Robin Hood, Sir Walter Raleigh, and George Washington. These stories illustrate the most celebrated protagonists of all time, and will entertain readers of all ages as much today as they have for centuries past. Originally published by American Book Company in 1896 as educational literature for grade schools, these stories will delight and educate children, laying the foundation for future literary studies as nearly all are frequently alluded to in modern poetry and prose. Children will take pleasure in having these stories read aloud to them, while older children will delight in reading them to themselves.

This timeless collection of short stories encompasses a vast history of famous literary heroes and their romantic tales of bravery, perseverance and compassion. Beginning with Socrates and the ancient Greeks, James Baldwin narrates the stories of larger-than-life figures like Leonidas and the Brave Three Hundred, Napoleon Bonaparte, Robin Hood, Sir Walter Raleigh, and George Washington. These stories illustrate the most celebrated protagonists of all time, and will entertain readers of all ages as much today as they have for centuries past. Originally published by American Book Company in 1896 as educational literature for grade schools, these stories will delight and educate children, laying the foundation for future literary studies as nearly all are frequently alluded to in modern poetry and prose. Children will take pleasure in having these stories read aloud to them, while older children will delight in reading them to themselves.