This collectible edition celebrates James Baldwin’s 100th-year anniversary, revealing and critiquing the lived realities of Black life in mid-century US
Originally published in Notes of a Native Son, the essays “The Harlem Ghetto,” “Journey to Atlanta,” and “Notes of a Native Son” will appeal to those interested in the personal and political turmoil of Baldwin’s life.
“The Harlem Ghetto” introduces readers to the extremities of life in Baldwin’s native city. “Journey to Atlanta” depicts the faulty relationship between the Black community and the politician, following a quartet called The Melodeers on a trip to Atlanta under the auspices of the Progressive Party. Baldwin concludes this collection with “Notes of A Native Son,” a powerful autobiographical essay about his fractured relationship with his father.
The Harlem Ghetto: Essays explores the American condition through a mix of analytic and autobiographical essays. This second collection in the Baldwin centennial anniversary series is Baldwin’s most personal as he grapples with his childhood and his own affinity with Blackness.
“A straight-from-the-shoulder writer, writing about the troubled problems of this troubled earth with an illuminating intensity.”
—Langston Hughes, The New York Times Book Review
“He named for me the things you feel but couldn’t utter. . . . Jimmy’s essays articulated for the first time to white America what it meant to be American and a black American at the same time.”
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Harlem Ghetto
Journey to Atlanta
Notes of a Native Son