The Fire Next Time

A seminal work of the U.S. Civil Rights movement, in which millions of Black Americans, still suffering under the weight of officially-supported discrimination, galvanized the nation with a plea for justice.  The Fire Next Time, which appeared in 1963, is perhaps Baldwin’s most famous work.  A brief work, it consists of two “letters” written to mark the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, in which enslaved African-Americans were freed.  The New York Times Book Review called it a “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament and chronicle … all presented in searing, brilliant prose.”