1 - Judging James Baldwin: 1963–73

Summary

JAMES BALDWIN PUBLISHED his third novel, Another Country, in 1962. The story of Rufus Scott and his intimate circle of friends, featuring numerous and constantly shifting heterosexual, homosexual, and interracial couplings, Another Country was greeted by critics with, at best, mixed reviews and, at worst, disgust. (It did, however, become a best-seller.) The author of the beautiful, lyrical Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and the piercing, soulful essays of Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961) had seemingly betrayed his audience's trust. The homosexual themes of Giovanni's Room (1956) turned out not to be an aberration. The critical uproar was almost deafening.

Therefore, we can well imagine, there was more than the usual anticipation with the publication of The Fire Next Time in 1963. Here was a chance for Baldwin to redeem himself, and the prospects looked good, as he returned to the form and content he had built his reputation on—essays on the American racial drama. But what Baldwin delivered, rather than a gut-wrenching confessional that carried the promise of reconciliation and healing, was a prophecy of apocalypse: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!”

While critics and readers were decidedly uncomfortable with The Fire Next Time (if the reviews are any indication), especially the sympathy he expresses for Elijah Muhammad's Black Muslim movement, this book nonetheless sold extremely well and catapulted Baldwin to a new level of celebrity. Whereas before The Fire Next Time Baldwin's reputation and fame didn't reach very far outside literary circles, after The Fire Next Time he became a staple of mainstream public media. In 1963 alone he embarked on a lecture tour for the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). He lectured widely throughout the South and made numerous appearances on TV and radio. He appeared on the cover of Time and as part of a photo story in Life in May. Along with Dr. Kenneth Clark, Lorraine Hansberry, Clarence B. Jones, Jerome Smith, Lena Horne, Edwin C. Berry, Harry Belafonte, Rip Torn, and Henry Morgenthau, he met with then attorney general Robert Kennedy to urge the Kennedy administration to more forceful action in the fight for civil rights.