Following on his 2016 F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature, scholar and author William J. Maxwell presents this edited and annotated selection from the 1,884-page file on the great American writer, speaker and civil rights activist James Baldwin. It was created between 1963 and 1974, at the peak of Baldwin's career. Under Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI regarded Baldwin as the most significant and dangerous African American writer of the 1960s. This material is of fresh interest now, says Maxwell, thanks to the revival of Baldwin's work driven by the young Black Lives Matter movement, for whom he is the "literary conscience, touchstone, and pinup, the go-to ideal of the writer in arms."
Maxwell's knowledgeable and concise commentary supplements this surveillance scrapbook of photos, article clippings, letters, literary criticism and more, forming an illicit patchwork "police-authored biography." There are also many appearances by key figures of the civil rights and Black Power movements. Maxwell provides a link to the complete file online, but states that this edit retains the range and story arc of the original. He discusses the FBI's role in Baldwin's declining productivity and gives evidence for how "Baldwin drove the FBI mad in turn," openly criticizing and even baiting them. Those interested in Baldwin, the U.S. civil rights movement or the problems of harassment by surveillance are likely to find this book disturbing, inspiring and eye-opening. --Sara Catterall