The Fire Next Time

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960s--and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. - "The finest essay I've ever read." --Ta-Nehisi Coates

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 from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. 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 literature.

Author: James Baldwin
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 12/01/1992
Pages: 128
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.3lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9780679744726
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 8.1
Point Value: 4
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 71298 / Fire Next Time


Review Citation(s):
Ebony 11/01/2005 pg. 42
Newsweek 11/03/2008 pg. 16
New Yorker (The) 02/09/2009 pg. 106

About the 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.