Nobody Knows My Name

Told with Baldwin's characteristically unflinching honesty, this collection of illuminating, deeply felt essays examines topics ranging from race relations in the United States to the role of the writer in society, and offers personal accounts of Richard Wright, Norman Mailer and other writers.

James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.

Introduction

PART ONE:  Sitting in the House . . .
1.   The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American
2.   Princes and Powers
3.   Fifth Avenue, Uptown: a Letter from Harlem
4.   East River, Downtown:  Postscript to a Letter from Harlem
5.   A Fly in Buttermilk
6.   Nobody Knows My Name: a Letter from the South
7.   Faulkner and Desegregation
8.   In Search of a Majority

PART TWO:  . . . With Everything on My Mind
9.   Notes from a Hypothetical Novel
10. The Male Prison
11. The Northern Protestant
12. Alas, Poor Richard
i.  Eight Men
ii. The Exile
iii. Alas, Poor Richard
13.  The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy