First published in 1963, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time stabbed at the heart of America’s so-called “Negro problem.” As remarkable for its masterful prose as it is for its frank and personal account of the black experience in the United States, it is considered one of the most passionate and influential explorations of 1960s race relations, weaving thematic threads of love, faith, and family into a candid assault on the hypocrisy of the “land of the free.”
Now, James Baldwin’s rich, raw, and ever relevant prose is reprinted in a letterpress edition with more than 100 photographs from Steve Schapiro, who traveled the American South with Baldwin for Lifemagazine. The encounter thrust Schapiro into the thick of the movement, allowing for vital, often iconic, images both of civil rights leaders—including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Jerome Smith—and such landmark events as the March on Washington and the Selma March.
Collector’s Edition of 1,813 numbered copies, each signed by Steve Schapiro, featuring:
-Silk-screened hardcover with an embossed paper case
-Letterpress printed text on a natural uncoated paper
-Facsimile reproductions of ephemera from the era.
Art Direction Josh Baker
Design Jessica Trujillo & Lindsey Dole
Cover Illustration Lindsey Dole
