Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son

Baldwin’s illuminating, poignantly sharp, and brutally honest essays are my go-to medicine whenever I’m in one of my darker moods. This collection is maybe best summarized in the following quote:

"Which of us has overcome his past? And the past of a Negro is blood dripping down through leaves, gouged-out eyeballs, the sex torn from its socket and severed with a knife. But this past is not special to the Negro. This horror is also the past, and the everlasting potential, or temptation, of the human race. If we do not know this, it seems to me, we know nothing about ourselves, nothing about each other; to have accepted this is also to have found a source of strength – source of all our power. But one must first accept this paradox, show more with joy." show less

I enjoy reading essay collections from the '50s, '60s and '70s because they are from another time that, nonetheless, still feels somewhat contemporary. This excellent collection, unfortunately, feels too contemporary. During these Black Lives Matter days, that a book written 60 years ago should feel so currently on-point is, while fascinating, quite disturbing.

Nobody Knows My Name is a collection of essays continued from Notes From a Native Son. While the essays are less biting than those in Notes they are just as honest and clear about the Negro condition at the time of Baldwin's writing. He has a sharp eye for the social and economical position of the time. As he was frequenting Paris I find it interesting that for Baldwin the question of color did not exist in Europe whereas in America he was afraid to listen to Bessie Smith or even touch watermelon. It is in Europe that Baldwin discovered what it mean to be an American.

These essays touched on the themes of race, identity, and society. Baldwin was frustrated with the limitations imposed on Black education-whether through underfunded schools or curricula that failed to reflect the Black experience. A bit harsh on teachers, IMHO. Perhaps teachers in the 1960’s had more of a say as to teaching curricula, but today it is mostly prescribed by boards of education. Baldwin asserts that the only alternative to institutionally racist white schools was the "criminally useless all Black schools where nothing is taught."

Baldwin did not hesitate to call out and condemn those who conformed to the rules of the racist system for personal advantage. One of my favorite essays was “Fly in the Buttermilk”, which show more tells the story of a young boy, and his mother confronted by a group of racists and verbally attacked and threatened on the street. Other essays that stood out were Baldwin’s rocky relationship with Richard Wright, his condemnation of Faulkner’s south, growing up in Harlem, and his interviews with Ingmar Bergman and Norman Mailer.

While I feel Baldwin's examples are dated, certainly some of the themes are presently applicable. I really appreciate Baldwin's assertation that true freedom can only exist when all have an identity which flows from personal integrity. I liked the concepts and ideas better than the actual writing. show less

This is a magnetic book. Whenever I leaf through it again, I get the feeling I have to reread it once more.

Read this, for example: "...[T]he American equation of success with the big times reveals an awful disrespect for human life and human achievement. This equation has placed our cities among the most dangerous in the world and has placed our youth among the most empty and most bewildered. The situation of our youth is not mysterious. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models. That is exactly what our children are doing. They are imitating our immorality, our disrespect for the pain of others."

My copy is a gift from one of my show more sisters, who wrote inside, "My favorite author." I believe I know why. show less

These are essays about American identity, black identity and writing, and while they didn't inspire me as much as Baldwin's novels I've read I enjoyed them.

This is an excellent collection of articles/essays by the late James Baldwin.

He left the US for Paris at one point because he felt he could not survive “the fury of the colour problem” there.

He writes about being a Negro and also being an American writer.

He introduced me to Richard Wright, a renowned black American writer, who, among other books, wrote “”Black Boy”. He tells us it is the study of “the growing up of a Negro boy in the Deep South, and is one of the major American autobiographies”.

Wright was one of the speakers at a conference of Negro-African writers and artists in Paris in 1956, which Baldwin attended, and we are given the content of Wright’s speech.

Baldwin tells us about Harlem and that “Negroes show more want to be treated like men”.

He discusses the differences between the South and the North (of the US).

He quotes a black friend as saying “The spirit of the South is the Spirit of America”.

He tells us “the South is not merely an embarassingly backward region, but a part of this country, and what happens there concerns every one of us”.

For the Northener, “Negroes represent nothing to him personally except, perhaps, the dangers of carnality”. “He never sees Negroes, Southerners see them all the time. Northerners never think about them whereas Southerners are never really thinking of anything else. Negroes are, therefore, ignored in the North and under surveillance in the South, and suffer hideously in both places. Neither the Southerner nor the Northerner is able to look on the Negro simply as a man.”

This book was written many years ago; I hope that what Baldwin wrote then has become outdated. I don’t know because I've never been to the US at any time.

There’s an article/chapter about Faulkner and desegregation and an interesting description of Baldwin’s visit to Sweden, where he visited Ingrid Bergman. He gives us a detailed account of the intricacies of their conversation.

There is also a chapter describing Baldwin’s complicated relationship with Richard Wright, and one about his relationship with Norman Mailer.

I found these latter chapters wonderfully illuminating both as regards Baldwin’s and the others’ characters/personalities.

Although this volume may seem and in fact is rather obsolete, I found many of the chapters fascinating. I would highly recomend that any reader at all interested in Baldwin or his work read this book, if it can still be obtained. show less