A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The
Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate
voice to the emerging civil rights movement. 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. 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
our literature.