Go Tell It on the Mountain
In one of the greatest American classics, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity. 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. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin tells the story of the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Originally published in 1953, Baldwin said of his first novel, "Mountain is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else."
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Go Tell It on the Mountain
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
On his fourteenth birthday in 1935 Harlem, John Grimes wrestles with his stepfather, his stepfather's God, and his own desires. Through the night the church prays, and three adults' pasts open up around him.
Yes. Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) was Baldwin's debut novel. It is heavily autobiographical, drawing on his Harlem upbringing as the stepson of a Pentecostal preacher.
Yes. Go Tell It on the Mountain has been frequently challenged in American schools, primarily for language and frank treatment of religion and sexuality. It remains widely taught in literature and African American studies courses.
Go Tell It on the Mountain was written by James Baldwin, published in 1952 by Dell.
Go Tell It on the Mountain is 233 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Go Tell It on the Mountain takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
Go Tell It on the Mountain is a standalone novel by James Baldwin, not part of a series.
Go Tell It on the Mountain is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.