Going to Meet the Man. By James Baldwin. First Printing Bound in Book Club Casing. Dial Press/Mid-Century Book Club. New York, 1965.

American author and civil rights activist James Baldwin produced some of the best essays and fiction of his era. His 1953 novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, established Baldwin as a voice with significant talent in the Civil Rights Movement and American Literature more broadly. He went on to become friends with a host of major artistic and political figures–everyone from Nina Simone to Truman Capote to Jean-Paul Sartre to Maya Angelou. He also consistently published critically acclaimed prose in a career that spanned decades. Going to Meet the Man stands out as one of his best works. It is a short story collection about Black lives in America during the mid-twentieth century. The stories are elegant, poignant, and moving. They remain some of the best short fiction from the period.

This edition is a peculiar case. Its sheets are from the first edition, first printing by the Dial Press, but it was bound and issued by the Mid-Century Book Club. Book club casing is in very good condition. Full yellow boards near-fine with only minor bumping to edges. Text block fine. In the original dust jacket, very good with some foxing, rubbing, and creases.

A very good mixed issue of Going to Meet the Man.