Connection (if any) between James Baldwin and "Easy Rider"? Why would he be signing a copy circa '60s or '70s?

Question

I ran across the video ABC Tried to Bury This James Baldwin Interview. Four Decades Later, It's Blisteringly Relevant. The video's notes begin:

Buried by ABC at the time, the segment has resurfaced over four decades later, revealing a unique glimpse into Baldwin’s private life—as well as his resounding criticism about white fragility, as blisteringly relevant today as it was in 1979.

It shows some file footage of author James Baldwin at a book signing. I can make out two of the books are Another Country (1962) and Blues for Mr. Charlie (play, 1964) (images below) but he is also signing a book that appears to be titled Easy Rider.

This puzzles me; there is of course the movie of that title from 1969 IMDB and apparently a book about that movie with the same title by Lee Hill from 1996 which seems equally irrelevant and decades too late for that file footage.

So I'd like to ask:

Question: What is the connection (if any) between James Baldwin and Easy Rider? Why would he be signing a copy circa '60s or '70s?

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source

Answer 1

That would be James Baldwin's own publication Easy Rider, which can be found in WorldCat. The notes in the WorldCat entry describe this publication as follows:

"A selection from James Baldwin's forthcoming novel, Another country." --Cover. In The Dial: an annual of fiction. New York, 1962. p. 3-26.