Go Tell It on the Mountain
Introduction by Edwidge Danticat
From one of the great American writers of the twentieth century—a coming-of-age story about a fourteen-year-old boy questioning the terms of his identity, the racism he faces, and the double-edged role of religion in his life. • With an Introduction by Edwidge Danticat, award-winning author of Everything Inside.
“Vivid imagery … lavish attention to details … [A] feverish story.” —The New York Times
Originally published in 1953, Go Tell It on the Mountain—based in part on James Baldwin’s childhood in Harlem—was his first major work. With a potent combination of lyrical compassion and resonant rage, he portrays fourteen-year-old John Grimes, the stepson of a fire-breathing and abusive Pentecostal preacher in Harlem during the Depression. The action of this short novel spans a…
James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.