Notes of a native son - James Baldwin

In an age of Black Lives Matter, James Baldwin's essays on life in
Harlem, the
protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as
powerful
today as when they were first written. With documentaries like
I Am Not Your Negro bringing renewed interest to Baldwin's life and work, Notes of a Native Son serves as a valuable introduction.

Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture
a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights
movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of
one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of
that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin
probes the complex condition of being black in America. With a keen eye,
he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to
the motives and circumstances of the many black expatriates of the time,
from his home in "The Harlem Ghetto" to a sobering "Journey to
Atlanta."

Notes of a Native Son inaugurated Baldwin as
one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting
in the United States in the twentieth century, and many of his
observations have proven almost prophetic. His criticism on topics such
as the paternalism of white progressives or on his own friend Richard
Wright's work is pointed and unabashed. He was also one of the few
writing on race at the time who addressed the issue with a powerful
mixture of outrage at the gross physical and political violence against
black citizens and measured understanding of their oppressors, which
helped awaken a white audience to the injustices under their noses.
Naturally, this combination of brazen criticism and unconventional
empathy for white readers won Baldwin as much condemnation as praise.

Notes is the book that established Baldwin's voice as a social critic, and it
remains one of his most admired works. The essays collected here create
a cohesive sketch of black America and reveal an intimate portrait of
Baldwin's own search for identity as an artist, as a black man, and as
an American.