The Fire Next Time

By: James Baldwin

Narrated by: Jesse L. Martin

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movement in the 1960s—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. • “The finest essay I’ve ever read.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates

At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.

Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle … all presented in searing, brilliant prose,” The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.

©1962 James Baldwin (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

Critic reviews

"Searing...brilliant...masterful." ( The New York Times)
"One of the few genuinely indispensable American writers." ( Saturday Review
"Anguished...stabbing...a final plea and warning...to end the racial nightmare." ( Newsweek)

Sad and moving and powerful and beautiful

If we -- an now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others-- do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophesy, re-created from the Bible in a song by a slave, is upon us:

"God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
No more water, the fire next time!"

- James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

I just couldn't watch the second GOP debates tonight. I knew I couldn't face the Donald and his band of equally exquisite misfits. I'm not exactly in love with the Democrats either, but the GOP clown car is just too long, too tiring, too damn depressing. So I turned my TV off, tuned out, and read me some James Baldwin.

You could say Ta-Nehisi Coates brought me here (after reading Between the World and Me). Or perhaps, it has been these last couple years of official violence directed at the poor and the black in many of our biggest cities (St Louis, Baltimore, Las Angeles, New York). Or perhaps, I could also say that Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain also brought me here. Perhaps, it was reading the Old Testament with my own teenage children that pushed me in this direction. Or perhaps, even the promise of the New Testament. Maybe, it was my despair over the way that 14-year-old Muslim boy was treated with his homemade clock. I needed tonight a poetic healing and a spiritual justice. An Old Testament warning with a New Testament salve and a black rhythm. I needed James Baldwin's force, his poetry, his humanist hope, his infinitely quotable words. God, his prose is poetic. I literally ran out of post-it notes as I read this 106 page thesis, laid at the feet of his namesake nephew.

God this book was beginning to end sad and moving and powerful and beautiful; and so now writing this and glancing at the highlights (lowlights) of the GOP debates, I can securely say, I made the right damn choice tonight.

Profoundly bold, not surprisingly keenly acute!

After reading this piece, understand our history and how humanity has no color when at it's best. Stay woke, then, now, always to achieve "the impossible" and by doing so live in the truth: I'm possible because of good men and women daring to excel past racism.

Timely

The works of James Baldwin still ring true today. Our current cultural and political climate is not getting better. His proposition for the growth and development of Americans' collective future should be strongly considered.

Enjoyed the many levels of this book

Short book, but full of truth. As relevant today as it was 60 years ago when it was beginning to be put to paper.

Still relevant to our time.

It's as though time stands still when we discuss the plight of Black America. His words remain relevant today as it very well may have been relevant in any period in American history.

Beautiful and Challenging

"The Fire Next Time" is essential reading for all of us. James Baldwin's lyricism and clarity are enriching, haunting, perspective changing. Jesse Martin's reading does Baldwin's writing great honor!

A profound vision by a profound man.

This man was an amazing writer and communicator and the narrator captures so well the pros of James Baldwin.

Such a pleasure to read

Beautifully written analysis of humanity, with a message of love instead of hate and criticism. Enjoyed every word, every sentence, everything.

Baldwin's brilliance

A masterpiece by perhaps the greatest mind produced in American literature. The best writer in the English language since Shakespeare.

This is truly a must read book

Oh my God, I can't believe I waited till I am 62 to read this book! But now I am so glad I did!