The Harlem Ghetto: Essays

This collectible edition celebrates James Baldwin’s 100th-year anniversary, revealing and critiquing the realities of Black life in mid-century US

Originally published in Notes of a Native Son, the essays ＂The Harlem Ghetto,＂ ＂Journey to Atlanta,＂ and ＂Notes of a Native Son＂ will appeal to those interested in the personal and political turmoil of Baldwin’s life.

＂The Harlem Ghetto＂ introduces readers to the extremities of life in Baldwin’s native city. ＂Journey to Atlanta＂ depicts the faulty relationship between the Black community and the politician, following a quartet called The Melodeers on a trip to Atlanta under the auspices of the Progressive Party. Baldwin concludes this collection with ＂Notes of A Native Son,＂ a powerful autobiographical essay about his fractured relationship with his father.

The Harlem Ghetto: Essays explores the American condition through a mix of analytic and autobiographical essays. This second collection in the Baldwin centennial anniversary series is Baldwin’s most personal as he grapples with his childhood and his own affinity with Blackness.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic, and one of America’s foremost writers. His writing explores palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-twentieth-century America. A Harlem, New York, native, he primarily made his home in the south of France. He is the author of several novels and books of nonfiction, including Notes of a Native Son, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, Another Country, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone, If Beale Street Could Talk, Just Above My Head, The Fire Next Time, No Name in the Street, and The Evidence of Things Not Seen, and of the poetry collection Jimmy’s Blues.