C.L.R. James (4 January 1901 – 19 May 1989) [revised post from last year]

Today is the birthday of C.L.R. James (4 January 1901 – 19 May 1989), the remarkable Marxist humanist and Afro-Trinidadian socialist, historian, journalist, and essayist. 

Here are two posts from the archives on James: From “Cricketing in Compton” to the “Cricketing Marxist,” and The Marxist Spirituality of C.L.R. James. And here is a fitting celebratory essay by Christian Høgsbjerg on James’ “magisterial work,” The Black Jacobins (1938, second ed., 1963): “CLR James and the Black Jacobins.” 

The following works help illuminate the life and writings of C.L.R. James, the “cricketing Marxist” and “urbane revolutionary.”

• Buhle, Paul. C.L.R. James: The Artist as Revolutionary. London: Verso, 1988. 
• Buhle, Paul, ed. C.L.R. James: His Life and Work. London: Allison & Busby, 1986. 
• Forsdick, Charles and Christian Høgsbjerg, eds. The Black Jacobins Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017.  
• Høgsbjerg, Christian. C.L.R. James in Imperial Britain. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
• Renton, Dave. C.L.R. James: Cricket’s Philosopher King. London: Haus, 2007. 
• Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. London: Zed Books, 1983. 
• Rosengarten, Frank. Urbane Revolutionary: C.L.R. James and the Struggle for a New Society. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.  
• Worcester, Kent. C.L.R. James: A Political Biography. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.

Most of the major works (books only) of C.L.R. James:

• James, C.L.R. World Revolution, 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International. London: Secker & Warburg, 1937/ New York: Prism Key Press, 2011.  
• James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York: Random House/Vintage Books, 2nd ed., 1963/1989 (1938).  
• James, C.L.R. A History of the Pan-African Revolt. Oakland, CA: PM Press, in conjunction with Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co. (Chicago), 2012 (1938).  
• James, C.L.R. (Noel Ignatiev, ed.) A New Notion: Two Works by C.L.R. James (The Invading Socialist Society and ‘Every Cook Can Govern’). Oakland , CA: PM Press, 2010 (1947 and 1956, respectively).  
• James, C.L.R. Beyond a Boundary. London: Stanley Paul & Co., 1963/Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 50th anniversary edition, 2013. 
• James, C.L.R. The Future in the Present. London: Allison & Busby, 1977.  
• James, C.L.R. Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution. London: Allison & Busby, 1977.  
• James, C.L.R. Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In. Detroit, MI: Beswick, 2nd ed., 1978/London: Allison & Busby, 1985.  
• James, C.L.R. Notes on Dialectics: Hegel, Marx, Lenin. London: Allison & Busby, 1980.  
• James, C.L.R. Spheres of Existence. London: Allison & Busby, 1980.  
• James, C.L.R. At the Rendezvous of Victory. London: Allison & Busby, 1984.  
• James, C.L.R. (in collaboration with Raya Dunayevskaya and Grace Lee) State Capitalism and World Revolution. Chicago, IL: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 1986.