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
"Mountain," Baldwin said, "is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else." Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, 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. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.
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
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Title
Go Tell It on the Mountain
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Author
James Baldwin
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Binding
Prebound
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Pages
263
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Volumes
1
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Language
ENG
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Publisher
Perfection Learning
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ISBN
9781627659567 / 1627659560
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Weight
0.45 lbs (0.20 kg)
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Dimensions
6.9 x 4 x 0.9 in (17.53 x 10.16 x 2.29 cm)
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Reading level
970
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Library of Congress subjects
African American men, African Americans - Religion
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Dewey Decimal Code
FIC
About the author
James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, and educated in New York. His first novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountain," appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews and immediately was recognized as establishing a profound and permanent new voice in American letters. "Mountain is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else," he remarked. Baldwin's play "The Amen Corner" was first performed at Howard University in 1955 (it was staged commercially in the 1960s), and his acclaimed collection of essays Notes of a Native Son, was published the same year. A second collection of essays, "Nobody Knows My Name," was published in 1961 between his novels "Giovanni's Room" (1956) and "Another Country" (1961).
The appearance of "The Fire Next Time" in 1963, just as the civil rights movement was exploding across the American South, galvanized the nation and continues to reverberate as perhaps the most prophetic and defining statement ever written of the continuing costs of Americans' refusal to face their own history. It became a national bestseller, and Baldwin was featured on the cover of "Time" magazine. Critic Irving Howe said that "The Fire Next Time" achieved "heights of passionate exhortation unmatched in modern American writing." In 1964 "Blues for Mister Charlie," his play based on the murder of a young black man in Mississippi, was produced by the Actors Studio in New York. That same year, Baldwin was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and collaborated with the photographer Richard Avedon on "Nothing Personal," a series of portraits of America intended as a eulogy for the slain Medger Evers. A collection of short stories, "Going to Meet the Man," was published in 1965, and in 1968, "Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone," his last novel of the 1960s appeared. In the 1970s he wrote two more collections of essays and cultural criticism: "No Name in the Street" (1972) and "The Devil Finds Work" (1976). He produced two novels: the bestselling "If Beale Street Could Talk" (1974) and "Just Above My Head" (1979) and also a children's book "Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood" (1976). He collaborated with Margaret Mead on "A Rap on Race" (1971) and with the poet-activist Nikki Giovanni on "A Dialogue" (1973). He also adapted Alex Haley's "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" into "One Day When I Was Lost."
In the remaining years of his life, Baldwin produced a volume of poetry, "Jimmy's Blues" (1983), and a final collection of essays, "The Price of the Ticket." Baldwin's last work, "The Evidence of Things Not Seen" (1985), was prompted by a series of child murders in Atlanta. Baldwin was made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor in June 1986. Among the other awards he received are a Eugene F. Saxon Memorial Trust Award, a Rosenwald fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Partisan Review fellowship, and a Ford Foundation grant. James Baldwin died at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France on December 1, 1987.