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SINCE the summer or fall, it’s struck me that a writer long considered the little brother — perhaps even the gay little brother — of black literature’s Big Three had become the essential artist of our time.
Here is my story on him, timed in part to the Oscar-nominated films Moonlight and I Am Not Your Negro, both of which are excellent.
Update: Moonlight, of course, just won the Oscar for best picture. Director Barry Jenkins told me the film was inspired by Giovanni’s Room and The Fire Next Time. Great movie, and as much as I liked Manchester and La La Land, glad to see Moonlight recognized. 
Baldwin was the absolute master of American prose style. Add to that the fact that he was writing about the central problem of American democracy and it’s hard to not yield him a top place in our literature.