James Baldwin was a leading advocate for the rights of African Americans. As the 1960s began, and violence in the South increased, Baldwin grew increasingly angry. He responded with powerful books and essays, in part meant to educate white Americans on what it meant to be black. It also offered white readers a view of themselves through the eyes of the African-American community. Through his work, Baldwin offered a brutally realistic picture of race relations, but he always remained hopeful about improvement. Nothing Personal began as a collaboration with Richard Avedon, intended as a eulogy for the slain civil rights activist Medger Evers. Published a year after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, it highlights the civil rights movement, and illustrates in sharp contrast the wide spectrum of social views of the 1960’s. Avedon juxtaposes an American Nazi Party salute with a naked Allen Ginsberg, a segregationist George Wallace, and a man born into slavery, William Cansby. Nothing Personal remains an important portrait of a time of great internal strife, and a testament to those who stood up and demanded change.

“If a society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society is safe. The forces thus released in the people can never be held in check, but run their devouring course, destroying the very foundations which it was imagined they would save.”

– James Baldwin, Nothing Personal

Description: Hard bound, no dust jacket. Missing original publishers slipcase. Bound with white paper over boards with silver title panel front and back and black lettering to panel and to spine. Boards are rubbed and lightly soiled. Spine edges bumped, and showing small tears. Interior clean and binding tight. A good working copy of copy of Avedon’s notoriously fragile second book.

Bookseller Inventory# 25401

SOLD

Nothing Personal
Baldwin, James; Avedon, Richard

Publisher: Antheneum
Publication Date: 1964
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Edition: First Edition

· Category: Sold ·