Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to free himself from a religious upbringing. He had even considered entering a seminary and was searching for...

Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to free himself from a religious upbringing. He had even considered entering a seminary and was searching for literature that would offer illumination and insight.

Inspired by James Baldwin's novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Tóibín found a writer who would be a lifelong companion and exemplar. As he says in On James Baldwin, "appropriating the heritage of English prose, Baldwin was adapting and using not only a style but also system of thinking . . . to suggest that the way towards truth was slippery, ambiguous, and easily undermined. In order to state something that was true, you had to approach it from an angle. . . . His thought was subtle, ironic, but also engaged and passionate. When he needed to, he could write a plain, sharp sentence, or he could produce a high-toned effect, or he could end a long sentence with a ringing sound." On James Baldwin is a magnificent contemporary author's tribute to one of his most consequential literary progenitors.