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Go Tell It on the Mountain
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Go Tell It on the Mountain Compact disc - 2013

by James Baldwin; Read by Adam Lazarre-White


About this book

Written over a span of ten years, Go Tell It on the Mountain is James Baldwin’s first completed novel. The story follows John Grimes, a bright teen living in Harlem in the 1930s, as he explores relationships with his family and his church. On a basic level, Go Tell It on the Mountain is a coming of age story, yet the novel gains complexity as the omniscient narrator interweaves John’s story with the stories of his mother, father, and aunt.

In addition to the Grimes family, a main focus of the text is the function of the Christian Church in the lives of African-Americans, which Baldwin argues to be a source of moral hypocrisy and repression. And with a title like Go Tell It on the Mountain, it is no surprise that the novel contains has many biblical references throughout.

The novel is generally accepted as semi-autobiographical. Like the protagonist, Baldwin grew up in Harlem. Neither had a relationship with their biological fathers and both resented their religious fanatic stepfathers. Also like John, Baldwin underwent a religious awakening as a young adult.

Go Tell It on the Mountain is ranked 39th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century and is also listed on TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923). In 1984, ABC produced a made-for-television movie based on the novel.

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From the publisher

James Baldwin's stunning first novel is now an American classic. With startling realism that brings Harlem and the black experience vividly to life, this is a work that touches the heart with emotion while it stimulates the mind with its narrative style, symbolism, and excoriating vision of racism in America. Moving through time from the rural South to the northern ghetto, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Go Tell It on the Mountain is an unsurpassed portrayal of human beings caught up in a dramatic struggle and of a society confronting inevitable change.

First Edition Identification

Knopf first published Go Tell it on the Mountain in New York in 1953. Bound in red cloth, the first edition states “First Edition” on the copyright page with no additional printings listed. Its dust jacket states the original price of $3.50. First editions of Go Tell it on the Mountain have sold for $8,000-10,000. 

Details

  • Title Go Tell It on the Mountain
  • Author James Baldwin; Read by Adam Lazarre-White
  • Binding Compact Disc
  • Edition Unabridged
  • Pages 7
  • Volumes 7
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Audiogo
  • Date 2013-01
  • ISBN 9781620645437 / 1620645432
  • Weight 0.55 lbs (0.25 kg)
  • Dimensions 5.9 x 5 x 1.1 in (14.99 x 12.70 x 2.79 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Mid-Atlantic
    • Cultural Region: Northeast U.S.
    • Demographic Orientation: Urban
    • Ethnic Orientation: African American
    • Geographic Orientation: New York
  • Library of Congress subjects Domestic fiction, Identity (Psychology)
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • Audio File, 06/01/2013, Page 43
  • Library Journal, 05/01/2013, Page 48

About the author

James Baldwin (1924-1987) is the author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, including "Notes of a Native Son, Another Country," and "Blues for Mister Charlie." He received many awards including the Eugene F. Saxon Memorial Trust Award, a Rosenwald Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Partisan Review Fellowship, and a Ford Foundation grant. He was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1986.