The fire next time

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963,  The Fire Next Time  galvanized the nation, gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today.   "Basically the finest essay I’ve ever read. . . . 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   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 from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain . 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 literature.

Text Difficulty 7|||UG/Upper grades (9th-12)|||1300 Lexile.|||8.1 ATOS Level

James Baldwin.

Electronic reproduction. New York : Vintage, 2013. Requires OverDrive Read (file size: N/A KB) or Adobe Digital Editions (file size: 1980 KB) or Kobo app or compatible Kobo device (file size: N/A KB) or Amazon Kindle (file size: N/A KB).