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Notes of a Native Son (Magill’s Choice: American Ethnic Writers)

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James Baldwin is a fine novelist, as such works as Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and Giovanni’s Room (1956) prove. Many readers consider his nonfiction to be even finer than his fiction. His essays, which may be found in collections such as Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1852), which Baldwin considers self-righteous and so sentimental as to be dishonest. “Many Thousands Gone” examines Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), which Baldwin describes as badly flawed....

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