Writer and activist James Baldwin (1924-1987) scrutinized racial, sexual and class disparities in American culture. He was raised in Harlem by an impoverished mother and abusive stepfather, where abuse by white police officers, a search for solace in religion, and the realization that he was homosexual all greatly influenced his future writing. Baldwin, disillusioned by the treatment of black and gay men in the United States, moved to France at age 24. He wrote Go Tell It on the Mountain, a semi-autobiographical novel, in 1953, and published Notes of a Native Son, an essay collection, in 1955. Giovanni's Room (1956) caused controversy with its predominantly white cast and explicit homoeroticism. Baldwin's extensive later works include The Fire Next Time, a book of two essays ("My Dungeon Shook" and "Down at the Cross") exploring the role of race in American history and the intersections between race and religion. Baldwin became an avid supporter of the Civil Right Movement, though his permanent home remained a village in southern France.
Prior to his death, Baldwin was working on Remember This House, a memoir about his relationships with civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2016, Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck adapted this unfinished manuscript into I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary about racism in the U.S. narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, now nominated for Best Documentary Feature in this year's Academy Awards. On February 7, Vintage released a companion book featuring 40 black-and-white images from the film ($15, 9780525434696). --Tobias Mutter
