Books by and about James Baldwin

 Go Tell It on the Mountain  /   The Fire Next Time  /  Notes of a Native Son  /    If Beale Street Could Talk

Carol E. Henderson, James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain: Historical And Critical Essays. Peter Lang Publishing, 2006.

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James Arthur Baldwin--born in Harlem, New York, August 2, 1924--was probably the most popular Negro writer from the mid-50s through the mid-60s. For the civil rights movement, he provided a vital literary voice. The eldest of nine children, his stepfather was a minister. At age fourteen, Baldwin became a preacher at the Fireside Pentecostal in Harlem, motivated probably in ecclesiastical ambitions from a need to gain respect from his stepfather.

After he graduated from high school, he moved to Greenwich Village. In the early 1940s, he transferred his faith from religion to literature. Critics, nevertheless, still note the impassioned cadences of Black church rhetoric in his writings.  Go Tell It on the Mountain  (1953), his first novel, is a partially autobiographical account of his youth. His essay collections Notes of a Native Son  (1955), Nobody Know My Name (1961) were influential in informing a large white audience.

From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France, but often returned to the USA to lecture or teach. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in New York City. his novels include Giovanni's Room (1956), about a white American expatriate who must come to terms with his homosexuality, and Another Country (1962), about racial and gay sexual tensions among New York intellectuals. His inclusion of gay themes resulted in a lot of savage criticism from the Black community.

Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated that Baldwin's writing displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." Baldwin's play, Blues for Mister Charlie, was produced in 1964. Going to Meet the Man (1965) and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (1968) provided powerful descriptions of American racism. As an openly gay man, he became increasingly outspoken in condemning discrimination against lesbian and gay people.

updated 2 October 2007 / update 24 February 2008