Wish List 0 Wish List 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

The Fire Next Time

Author James Baldwin
Look inside
$22.00 US
Random House Group | Modern Library
24 per carton
On sale Jul 06, 2021 | 978-0-679-60151-7
Sales rights: US, Canada, Open Mkt
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
See Additional Formats
A stirring, intimate reflection on the nature of race and American nationhood that has inspired generations of writers and thinkers, first published in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington

“The finest essay I’ve ever read.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner Between the World and Me

With clarity, conviction, and passion, James Baldwin delivers a dire warning of the effects of racism that remains urgent nearly sixty years after its original publication. 

In the first of two essays, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” Baldwin offers kind and unflinching counsel on what it means to be Black in the United States and explains the twisted logic of American racism. 

In “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind,” Baldwin recounts his spiritual journey into the church after a religious crisis at the age of fourteen, and then back out of it again, as well as his meeting with Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Throughout, Baldwin urges us to confront the oppressive institutions of race, religion, and nationhood itself, and insists that shared resilience among both Black and white people is the only way forward. As much as it is a reckoning with America’s racist past, The Fire Next Time is also a clarion call to care, courage, and love, and a candle to light the way.
“Sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle . . . all presented in searing, brilliant prose that James Baldwin gives us no matter what form he is working in.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Basically the finest essay I’ve ever read. It’s technically two essays but it feels like one. [James] Baldwin refused to hold anyone’s hand. He was both direct and beautiful all at once. He did not seem to write to convince you. He wrote beyond you.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner Between the World and Me

“It was as if I sat on my porch steps with a wise father, a kind, present uncle, who said this to me. Told me I was worthy of love. Told me I was worth something in the world. Told me I was a human being.”—Jesmyn Ward, editor of The Fire This Time and author of the National Book Award winner Sing, Unburied, Sing

“So eloquent in its passion and so scorching in its candor that it is bound to unsettle any reader.”—The Atlantic
Discussion Guide for The Fire Next Time

Provides questions, discussion topics, suggested reading lists, introductions and/or author Q&As, which are intended to enhance reading groups’ experiences.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

Read More

About

A stirring, intimate reflection on the nature of race and American nationhood that has inspired generations of writers and thinkers, first published in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington

“The finest essay I’ve ever read.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner Between the World and Me

With clarity, conviction, and passion, James Baldwin delivers a dire warning of the effects of racism that remains urgent nearly sixty years after its original publication. 

In the first of two essays, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” Baldwin offers kind and unflinching counsel on what it means to be Black in the United States and explains the twisted logic of American racism. 

In “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind,” Baldwin recounts his spiritual journey into the church after a religious crisis at the age of fourteen, and then back out of it again, as well as his meeting with Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Throughout, Baldwin urges us to confront the oppressive institutions of race, religion, and nationhood itself, and insists that shared resilience among both Black and white people is the only way forward. As much as it is a reckoning with America’s racist past, The Fire Next Time is also a clarion call to care, courage, and love, and a candle to light the way.

Praise

“Sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle . . . all presented in searing, brilliant prose that James Baldwin gives us no matter what form he is working in.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Basically the finest essay I’ve ever read. It’s technically two essays but it feels like one. [James] Baldwin refused to hold anyone’s hand. He was both direct and beautiful all at once. He did not seem to write to convince you. He wrote beyond you.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner Between the World and Me

“It was as if I sat on my porch steps with a wise father, a kind, present uncle, who said this to me. Told me I was worthy of love. Told me I was worth something in the world. Told me I was a human being.”—Jesmyn Ward, editor of The Fire This Time and author of the National Book Award winner Sing, Unburied, Sing

“So eloquent in its passion and so scorching in its candor that it is bound to unsettle any reader.”—The Atlantic

Guides

Discussion Guide for The Fire Next Time

Provides questions, discussion topics, suggested reading lists, introductions and/or author Q&As, which are intended to enhance reading groups’ experiences.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

Read More

Additional formats

Other books in this series

Other Books by this Author

Related Articles
Promo Opportunity Diversity Fiction Nonfiction Best in Category

1619 Project Books

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story will be published by One World Books on 11/16/19, offering a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present and a dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

Read more

1619 Project Books

Promo Opportunity Diversity Fiction Nonfiction Best in Category
Award Winners

Announcing Oprah Winfrey’s “The Books That Help Me Through”

Kicking off on Monday, October 26th and running through Monday, November 30th, Oprah Winfrey’s “The Books That Help Me Through” will feature 7 titles—5 of which are Penguin Random House titles—that have provided her solace during uncertain times. This series will be featured on Oprah’s Book Club, Twitter & Instagram accounts. Each week will be

Read more

Announcing Oprah Winfrey’s “The Books That Help Me Through”

Award Winners

Penguin Random House Backlist Vault

Penguin Random House Sales

Penguin Random House

Legal

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)