Native sons

"James Baldwin was newly recognized as the most brilliant black writer of his generation when his first book of essays, Notes of a Native Son, firmly established his reputation in 1955. No one was more pleased by the book's reception than Baldwin's high school friend Sol Stein. A rising New York editor, novelist, and playwright, Stein had suggested that Baldwin write the book and coaxed his old friend through the long and sometimes agonizing process of putting the volume together and seeing it into print. Now, in this new book, Sol Stein documents the story of his and Baldwin's intense…