Nothing Less Than Love

An ideal introduction to the work of the poet, activist, and visionary whom Toni Morrison called “our premiere Black woman essayist,” Nothing Less Than Love brings together for the first time June Jordan’s essential writings on the revolutionary power of love.

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with flaps and deckle-edged paper

Love is dangerous. That is why the most stringently censored Black feminist poet and essayist of the twentieth century has a body of work suffused with it. The most widely published African American writer of her time, June Jordan was on the front lines of American literature and international injustice, a courageous agitator for change who wrote with love and ferocity. This volume, drawn from the full span of her career, makes manifest her vision of a lover who is a fighter, and a fighter who is always motivated by love. From her own battle with breast cancer to her exploration of Black English, she offers an example of how to find enough love within our rage both to make change and care for our communities and for future generations. This is how we learn to understand the stakes of love—with June Jordan as our passionate teacher.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.