Notes of a Native Son

Encyclopedia : N : NO : NOT : Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son is a non-fiction book by James Baldwin. It was Baldwin's first non-fiction book, and was published in 1955.

Notes of a Native Son collects ten of Baldwin's essays, which had previously appeared in such magazines as Harper's Magazine, Partisan Review, and The New Leader. The essays mostly tackle issues of race in America and Europe.The most famous essays in the book include the title piece, an autobiographical account of the death of Baldwin's father and his subsequent experiences with racial prejudice while working in New Jersey; "Everybody's Protest Novel", which critiques Native Son, the novel by Baldwin's mentor Richard Wright and which ended their friendship; and "Stranger in the Village", Baldwin's account of his time in an isolated Swiss mountain village, where the residents had never before seen a black person.

Notes of a Native Son is widely regarded as a classic of the African American autobiographical genre, and has been called Baldwin's finest work. The Modern Library placed it at number nineteen on its list of the 100 best 20th century nonfiction books.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.