The Last Interview and Other ConversationsRecommendations

The unedited last interview with James Baldwin, never previously made public.

“I was not born to be what someone said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself, and myself only.” When the poet Quincy Troupe travelled to the south of France in the fall of 1987 to interview James Baldwin, Baldwin's brother David advised him to ask him anything—Baldwin was critically ill at the time, and David knew that this might be the writer's last opportunity to speak at length about his life and work.

The result is one of Baldwin's most eloquent and revelatory interviews, a conversation that covers a wide range of topics, including his childhood in Harlem, his close friendship with Miles Davis, his relationships with writers such as Toni Morrison and Richard Wright, his years in France, and his razor-sharp observations on race relations and the African-American experience.

Significant interviews from various periods of Baldwin's life are also included, including an in-depth conversation with Studs Terkel immediately after the publication of Nobody Knows My Name. These conversations highlight Baldwin's boldness and honesty as a writer, thinker, and man, as well as the significant challenges he experienced along the road.