From one of the most important American novelists of the twentieth century—a novel of sexual, racial, political, artistic passions, set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France.
“Brilliant and fiercely told.”—The New York Times
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this book depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
"An almost unbearable, tumultuous, blood-pounding experience" —The Washington Post
"Brilliantly and fiercely told." —The New York Times
James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.
View titles by James Baldwin
From one of the most important American novelists of the twentieth century—a novel of sexual, racial, political, artistic passions, set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France.
“Brilliant and fiercely told.”—The New York Times
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this book depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Praise
"An almost unbearable, tumultuous, blood-pounding experience" —The Washington Post
"Brilliantly and fiercely told." —The New York Times
Author
James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.
View titles by James Baldwin
