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Letter to my Nephew
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About the author
James Baldwin
385 books16.8k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 2, 2024
Re-read in honor of James Baldwin’s 100th birthday today. The full title: “Letter to my Nephew on the 100th Anniversary of the Emancipation.”
Contains one of my favorite Baldwin lines:
“If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.”
Also, this:
“For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.”
Contains one of my favorite Baldwin lines:
“If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.”
Also, this:
“For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.”
December 5, 2018
Listened to Chris Rock do a reading of this on YouTube. Highly recommend.
May 18, 2022
Just great, read for class.
October 10, 2019
Still shaking.
April 4, 2020
As per usual, crying my eyes out.
Read
June 8, 2020i dont feel right rating things that i am learning from so
this was very emotional for me to read
this was very emotional for me to read
November 9, 2023
I would argue that simply putting "James. Baldwin." is sufficient to evidence the emotions and genius of his writing. But to be more clear, Baldwin's writing reaches a refinement and level that I think only a handful of writers ever reach in a lifetime. There are moments of delicate self reflection and rememberings puzzled together with jagged pieces of life in a white supremacy culture.
October 13, 2020
Beautifully written and so relevant so many years later.
October 12, 2021
4.5/5 - The Fire Next Time: Part 1/2
December 26, 2023
This essay changed my life honestly
April 21, 2025
CW That I Found: Racism, slavery
Beautiful poem about hope in the dark times.
Beautiful poem about hope in the dark times.
July 2, 2025
tears, all the tears
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July 17, 2025"And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeting from reality and begin to change it."
December 30, 2020
Timeless words. Great listen! Chris Rocks!!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews