James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Magdalena J. Zaborowska (University of Michigan)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1963

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Essay Collection

Resources

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In 1963, Baldwin's words electrified the world as

The Fire Next Time

ricocheted across the Atlantic and beyond, following the publication of two essays that comprise it in

The Progressive

and

The New Yorker

the year before: “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation” and “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind”. While the huge sales of this book and its presence on bestseller lists solidified Baldwin's stature as one of the most prominent writers and intellectuals in the United States, its praises and critiques re-cast his reputation in deepened racialized tones. As F.W. Dupee proclaimed in the

New York Review of Books

, “As a writer of polemical essays on the Negro question James Baldwin has no equals. He probably has,…

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1640 words

Citation: Zaborowska, Magdalena J.. "The Fire Next Time". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 April 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=857, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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