Nobody Knows My Name

I reveived my book on time ( canada) thank you!

This is a selection of essays, notes and articles from Baldwin. Beautifully written - as you'd expect - and very much politically and socially charged.

Fantastic read

The late, great James Baldwin who died far too young and who, sadly,never completely fulfilled his promise. "Nobody Knows My Name" along with "Notes of a Native Son" are two of the finest collection of essays probing racism, showing how destructive it is for everybody of whatever color or background. Read these two books--neither is overly long--along with his far briefer, and perhaps angrier "The Fire Next Time," and you will have immersed yourself in as fine an essayist as black America ever produced. Read these three utterly profound explorations of what it means to be black in America, and then go read Baldwin's finest two novels" "Go Tell it on the Mountain." an early memoir-novel exploring what it means to grow up black in a dominant (and domineering) white culture and Baldwin's later, longer "Another Country," a more mature book that gains power on virtually every page. Like America, as Baldwin would say, the country lost its way on the road to a better world and Baldwin understood it better than any black writer in the mid-20th century. Baldwin's "genius" was as an essayist (not as a novelist) but his passionate life long struggle to produce literary masterpieces came closest to fruition in his biting,unequaled prophecy--'The Fire Next Time" (1963) burst on the scene right before the riots in Watts, the savage beating of Rodney King and others, and the host of police killing of young black boys and men. Read Baldwin and discover how you feel about any of these atrocities that shame America.

Great book, wonderful essays, a book I would read again and again... But I would avoid wherever possible Penguin Modern Classics. The cheapest of paper, the poorest of bindings, the flimsiest of covers. I doubt I'll get two readings out of it before it disintegrates.