The Fire Next Time
**From Amazon.com:** 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.
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The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
James Baldwin pairs a short letter to his fifteen-year-old nephew with a long autobiographical essay on his Harlem childhood, his teenage years as a young preacher, his later meeting with Elijah Muhammad, and what white America owes.
Nonfiction. The Fire Next Time (1963) is James Baldwin's two-essay book about race in America, including a long letter to his nephew on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. It is widely cited as one of the great American essays.
Yes. The Fire Next Time has been continuously in print for over 60 years and is widely cited in modern conversations about race, including by Ta-Nehisi Coates whose Between the World and Me is structured similarly.
The Fire Next Time was written by James Baldwin, published in 1962 by Modern Library.
The Fire Next Time is 120 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Fire Next Time takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
The Fire Next Time is a standalone novel by James Baldwin, not part of a series.
The Fire Next Time is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
