Native Sons: A Friendship That Created One of the Greatest Works of the 20th Century

August 1, 2004
Legendary writer/editor/publisher Stein (The Magician; How to Grow a Novel) gives readers a backstage pass to the production of Baldwin's landmark essay collection Notes of A Native Son in this compilation of letters and memories. While only book publishing aficionados may be interested to know that Stein and Baldwin were partially responsible for debunking the myth that essays don't sell, and that Notes's paperback format was a crucial part of Baldwin's successful debut as an essayist, more readers will be intrigued by the two men's amiable debates and their friendship, which began while both were students and budding writers at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. Their correspondence, dated between 1955 and 1958, includes line edits of Baldwin's works, pleas by Stein for Baldwin to finish his writing and lengthy deliberations on politics, culture, race and the difficulty of finding a place in a sometimes not-so-welcoming native land. This last issue was a hallmark theme of Baldwin's work, and perhaps the most prominent tie that bound the African-American and the Jewish American together. Half of the book is devoted to the reproduction of"Dark Matter," a previously unpublished play that the friends co-authored. All of these materials will be extremely valuable to literary scholars, but casual readers are likely to find the volume rather disjointed, especially since the letters begin only in the year of Notes's publication and veer into numerous directions that stray far from the topic of getting Notes to the printer.