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Notes of A Native Son by James Baldwin
Notes of A Native Son by James Baldwin
By
James Baldwin
Beacon Press
#26 on The Guardian's list of 100 best nonfiction books of all
time, the essays explore what it means to be Black in America
Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only
in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture
a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights
movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the
words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost
intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social
critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in
America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the
significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of
the many black expatriates of the time, from his home in “The
Harlem Ghetto” to a sobering “Journey to Atlanta.”
Beacon Press