The name James Baldwin is sure to be known in most readers' minds. The two usual responses are: "I think I read him in high school?" or "Yeah he wrote that one and some others, but I never read him." Does anyone stop to think, why not read (or reread) him? He has a breadth of writings to discover: fiction, essays and even plays and poetry. And though many words have been said in the past and present about him, it is hard not to want to add another paean of gratitude for his works.

While it is difficult to say he is unknown, it is seemingly more that he is under appreciated, not just for his historical importance, specifically in defining a race conscious United States and writing about the difficulties faced by many groups that are marginalized and "othered," but his books also shine with literary feats of beauty. His writing is both sublime and alluring, that his thoughts flow straight into you and make you visualize and believe every word he writes. Whether he is writing a partial autobiography, or a complete work of fiction, or essays about his, and others', experiences in the United States and abroad, he writes with a candor and strong sense of affirmation in the future to be defined as one with less discrimination, his writing shows his belief in a possibility to live in a more just society.

Unfortunately, his writings are as necessary today as we seek to find comfort in anything that can help us figure out why there are such large disparities among people still. There is a continuously nascent idea that "this time is the time" and yet somehow we remain still drowning in discontent. James Baldwin knew, as many others did and still do, that inherent within the system in place, namely capitalism and what drives and protects capital, is a racist and discriminatory set of rules that does not allow for change or for the ability for already displaced communities to work towards a more equal share in the system. Without needing a history lesson, one only needs to look at the long history of the United States and even within the last 50 years do we see these stories continually play out, one of the few continually wielding power against those who have none.

In a post meant to honor one of the best writers to come from the United States, as well as anywhere else, one cannot overlook these essential ideas, for it is these essential ideas that is what he sought to change and what he fought for.

His writings, while focusing on these harrowing critiques of capitalist society at large, also play towards a much more personal side as well. His books contain stories of everyday heartbreak as well as love, they are stories in which we all can find something that mirrors our own lives, that we can relate to in a way that we cannot help but feel for the characters. His stories deal with the questions and constant rediscoveries that come every day, and with the opposing factors that try to limit our freedoms. The constant reexamination of ones' self through the eyes of the strangers, communities, friends, families and lovers that we try to identify with.

In If Beale Street Could Talk we find ourselves crying with Tish as she struggles to help out Fonny, her husband who is wrongly imprisoned, while trying to maintain her life and have her child. It is every character in this book that we can see play out in real life, and people that make us cry, laugh, smile, feel angry and sad but most of all, human. It is also this story which helps us to understand the lives that are lived by everyone, all around us.

In writing Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, Baldwin is set to define the black artist's experience in New York, and through meeting many different characters that Leo Proudhammer has in his life, we recognize the diversity and multitude of people and experience that are provided through the variety of characters we allow in our life. It is our destiny to seek our own ways and paths that contain influences wide-ranging and yet try in our own way to, and this is what all of Baldwin's books focus on, survive in a world that continually divides and separates.

Giovanni's Room, Baldwin's only book to not involve a focus on race, but rather involves a personal look at romantic relationships and discovered sexuality. This book invokes discrimination felt at trying to discover sexuality, namely the love between two men, and the woes of having to constantly question ourselves and our choices.

The story and pains of Rufus Scott dominate the story of Another Country, in which once again the struggle of living in a divided world, and the story of trying to make it as an artist comes to the epicenter of Baldwin's commands. He novelizes the struggles that are faced in being at the forefront of society and yet, held back because of a constant, uncomfortable feeling. Many questions are posited in this book, but most importantly, is it possible to get past the hurdles we have set up for ourselves and others and be able to love one another.

Many of Baldwin's essays are seeking to reach out and explain his passions, his want for a different world. In the first part of The Fire Next Time he is writing in the form of a letter to his nephew about race in the United States. While the second half deals with his experience and lessons engaging with religion and race. Similarly, Notes of a Native Son, Baldwin's first book of collected essays, deals heavily with the notion of race and the United States, He speaks to literature, to his own experience and to the world outside, both in the United States and beyond.

James Baldwin wrote even more collections, more poetry and plays that are all worth seeking out. Some ideas or styles might resonate with you as a reader more than others, but they are all impacting and seek to comfort us in times of our own questioning, our own problems and our own eventual answers. He seeks to provide clarity, and does so. Mostly though, he provides a sharp and thoughtful critique to the modern systemic problems that we have, and like Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X and many others both before and after, he added a voice of consciousness to the public, which retains its power and intensity after all of these years.