"Novelist, essayist, and public intellectual, James Baldwin was one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the postwar era, and one of the greatest African-American writers of this century. A self-described "transatlantic commuter" who spent much of his life in France, Baldwin joined a cosmopolitan sophistication to a fierce engagement with social issues." "Early Novels and Stories presents the novels and short stories that established Baldwin鈥檚 reputation as a writer who fused unblinking realism and rare verbal eloquence. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), tells the story, rooted in Baldwin鈥檚 own experience, of a preacher鈥檚 son coming of age in 1930鈥檚 Harlem." "Giovanni鈥檚 Room (1956) is a searching, and in its day controversial, treatment of the tragic self-delusions of a young American expatriate at war with his own homosexuality. Another Country (1962), a wide-ranging exploration of America鈥檚 racial and sexual boundaries, depicts the suicide of a gifted jazz musician and its ripple effect on those who knew him." "Going To Meet the Man (1965) collects Baldwin鈥檚 short fiction, including the masterful "Sonny鈥檚 Blues," the unforgettable portrait of a jazz musician struggling with drug addiction in which Baldwin came closest to defining his goal as a writer."--BOOK JACKET.