Spent Baldwin's birthday yesterday thinking about how easy it is to take for granted how ubiquitous he's become in our discourse today. It wasn't always this way. There was a period not long ago, when few Baldwin books were being taught in schools, when many didn't know his name.

My hope for Baldwin, and for us, is that people will read him beyond THE FIRE NEXT TIME. As important as that text is, it is only a small part of Baldwin's canon. There is so much more of him to read from before that 1963 book, and certainly much more of him to read after it.