James Baldwin

James Baldwin was an American author well known for his novels, essays and poems. Baldwin wrote about everything from race to sex and class distinctions. The author’s works were well known for tackling complicated personal and social subjects in fictionalized settings. +Biography James Baldwin was born in Harlem in New York.

The best place to start is The Story of a Decade series, the earliest of James Baldwin's multi-book series: it opens with The 40s: The Story of a Decade (2014) and runs to 3 books across 2014–2016, ending with The 60s: The Story of a Decade (2016).

James Baldwin has 230 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1793 and 2026. 177 of them belong to 5 named series — the largest being The Story of a Decade series with 3 books — and 53 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. James Baldwin's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are The Story of a Decade (2014–2016, 3 books) and Mindful Phil (2025, 1 book).

This guide splits James Baldwin's 230 books into 5 named series and 53 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: The Story of a Decade (3 books, 2014–2016); Mindful Phil (1 book, 2025); Literary Conversations (97 books, 1969–2023); The Last Interview (41 books, 2005–2023); ERIS Gems (35 books, 1793–2026).