... ticket to Paris. Baldwin published three collections of essays, which sold over a million copies each. 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 ... his! view of the damage that racial prejudice inflicts on both whites and blacks" (World Book Encyclopedia, pg. 31). Notes of a Native Son marked the formal entry of Baldwin into the literary tradition of the personal essay. The essay was mainly autobiographical and impressionistic while offe...

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