The Fire Next Time

The most searching essay on race and the American promise ever written, two pieces, one a letter to his nephew, that hold the country to the standard it claims for itself and refuse every easy comfort. Baldwin writes as a witness who loves the nation enough to tell it the truth, in prose that is scripture-cadenced, merciless, and exact. It is short and it is heavy. Read it slowly, and quote it sparingly, as its weight deserves.

The essayist and novelist who wrote about race and the American promise with a moral intensity no one has matched. The Fire Next Time is two essays, one a letter to his nephew, that hold the country to the standard it claims for itself and refuse every easy comfort. He wrote as a witness who loved the nation enough to tell it the truth. The prose is scripture-cadenced and merciless and exact.