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.
