C. L. R. James Reader (Wiley Blackwell Readers)

Author of "The Black Jacobins", "Beyond a Boundary" and "State Capitalism and the World Revolution", C.L.R. James was one of the most significant and widely-read black writers of our time, whose work has deeply influenced succeeding generations. In a life which began in Trinidad in 1901 and ended in Brixton, London in 1989, James contributed to 20th-century intellectual life as a writer on cricket, a literary critic and political theorist and activist. Travelling widely in the United States, Britain and the Caribbean, James exchanged views with Trotsky, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King, George Orwell and Virginia Woolf among others, and pursued his commitment to a less exploitative world in books, pamphlets, essays reviews and letters. This volume contains extracts from James's major works as well as some less readily available pieces. Prepared in collaboration with James during his last years, the collection is arranged chronologically, and covers his entire career, from his early fiction to the late studies of Black power and Black writing. It includes the complete text of the play, "The Black Jacobins", a wide selection of letters on politics and literature, and the famous essays, "The Case for West Indian Self-Government", "Popular Art and the Cultural Tradition" and "The Rise and Fall of Nkrumah".