James Baldwin has been on of the foremost interpreters of the black American experience. The controversial and outspoken nature of his works has stirred up a storm of critical reaction. Kenneth Kinnamon has selected a broad range of interpretations of Baldwin's life and work. Race, sex, violence, love, and religion, the most recurrent themes in Baldwin's works, receive the scrutiny of diverse commentators. Literary and social critics, black and white, explore in detail the impact, worth, and place of Baldwin as an imaginative writer and as an analyst of American racial dilemmas. -- From publisher's description.