It was the nonfiction books - Notes of a Nation Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963) - "that secured his reputation as an important American writer and social critic" (http://www.africana.com, pg. 1). ... Notes of a Native Son marked the formal entry of Baldwin into the literary tradition of the personal essay. ... "All thought flows, all is grace, because Baldwin is writing solely from himself, from an inner necessity, which generates a variety of approaches and an affluence of themes and variations" (Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 2, pg. 31). ... B...

• Word Count: 2618
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School