This stunningly personal document and extraordinary history of the turbulent sixties and early seventies displays James Baldwin's fury and despair more deeply than any of his other works.  In vivid detail he remembers the Harlem childhood that shaped his early conciousness, the later events that scored his heart with pain—the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns in Europe and in Hollywood, and his retum to the American South to confront a violent America face-to-face.

“More eloquent than W. E. B. DuBois, more penetrating than Richard Wright.... It contains truth that cannot be denied.” —The Atlantic Monthly“Characteristically beautiful.... He has not himself lost access to the sources of his being–which is what makes him read and awaited by perhaps a wider range of people than any other major American writer.” —The Nation