Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin - FIRST EDITION UK

FIRST EDITION UK, Michael Joseph, 1964, hardcover, 165 pages, loss to dust jacket otherwise condition: very good.

'The story of the negro in America is the story of America ... it is not a very pretty story'

James Baldwin's breakthrough essay collection made him the voice of his generation. Ranging over Harlem in the 1940s, movies, novels, his preacher father and his experiences of Paris, they capture the complexity of black life at the dawn of the civil rights movement with effervescent wit and prophetic wisdom.

Notes of a Native Son is a book of ten essays written by James Baldwin, first published in 1955. It was his debut nonfiction book, and it explores deep and personal themes, especially focusing on race, identity, and the Black experience in both America and Europe.

The volume, as his first non-fiction book, compiles essays of Baldwin that had previously appeared in such magazines as Harper's Magazine, Partisan Review, and The New Leader. Notes of a Native Son is widely regarded as a classic of the autobiographical genre. The Modern Library placed it at number 19 on its list of the 100 best 20th-century nonfiction books.