Go Tell It On the Mountain
(James Baldwin)

Part of what makes “Go Tell it on the Mountain” such a powerful novel is the fact that James Baldwin wrote it to be semiautobiographical.  He drew on experiences and people from his own life to create the characters and experiences in the novel.  James Baldwin was born in the 1920’s and never knew his biological father.

The man who raised James was his step-father, Daniel Baldwin, a Baptist preacher whose mother had been a slave.  At the hands of his step-father, James had a spiritual awakening when he was about fourteen years old and became a Minister for three years.  He had a decidedly heated relationship with Daniel, which directly reflects the relationship between John and Gabriel in the novel. 

James Baldwin attended high school in New York City and received a lot of praise for his writing while in school.  After graduation, he moved to Greenwich Village where he met author Richard Wright who loved his writing and helped him to get a grant.  With the grant, Baldwin was able to send his work, the first draft of “Go tell it on the Mountain”, to publishers though it was universally rejected.  Baldwin moved to France where he spent six years writing essays until finally, in 1952, his novel was published.  From this point on, Baldwin had many works published both fiction and nonfiction.

Baldwin’s nonfiction made him an unofficial spokesperson for African-American civil rights, and he became a lecturer, essayist, and activist for the civil rights movement.