Go Tell It on the Mountain - (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics) by James Baldwin (Hardcover)

About the Book

Originally published in 1953, this is "a hardcover edition of James Baldwin's classic coming-of-age novel set in Harlem in the 1930s, with a new introduction by Edwidge Danticat"--

Book Synopsis

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. - Presented here in stunning hardcover 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 single day in John's life, and yet manages to encompass on an epic scale his family's troubled past and his own inchoate longings for the future, set against a shining vision of a city where he both does and does not belong. Baldwin's story illuminates the racism his characters face as well as the double-edged role religion plays in their lives, both oppressive and inspirational.

In prose that mingles gritty vernacular cadences with exalted biblical rhythms, Baldwin's rendering of his young protagonist's struggle to invent himself pioneered new possibilities in American language and literature.

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

Review Quotes

"With vivid imagery, with lavish attention to details, Mr. Baldwin has told his feverish story." --The New York Times

"Brutal, objective and compassionate." --San Francisco Chronicle

"It is written with poetic intensity and great narrative skill." --Harper's

"Strong and powerful." --Commonweal

"A sense of reality and vitality that is truly extraordinary.... He knows Harlem, his people, and the language they use." --Chicago Sun-Times

"This is a distinctive book, both realistic and brutal, but a novel of extraordinary sensitivity and poetry." --Chicago Sunday Tribune

About the Author

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.

EDWIDGE DANTICAT is the author of numerous books, including Claire of the Sea Light, a New York Times notable book; Brother, I'm Dying, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; and The Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She lives in Miami.