"Never before available, the unexpurgated last interview with James Baldwin "I was not born to be what someone said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself, and myself only.

The book, organized in sections centered around the writer's four great loves, details how Baldwin spent decades wrestling with his own sexuality, racism in the U.S. and abroad and the cost of fame.

Drawing on Baldwin’s letters and his and others’ autobiographical writings, as well as on interviews with those who knew him—including the first lengthy interview with Baldwin’s lover and ...

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Early Friday afternoon of May 24, 1963 ...