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Introduction

James Baldwin

Best known for his semiautobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), African-American author James Baldwin primarily explores issues of injustice and identity. That is understandably so. Born in 1924 in Harlem, Baldwin never knew his biological father, his mother was impoverished, and his stepfather was abusive. Baldwin also had to deal with the problems posed by being homosexual. His feelings of the unfairness of life come out repeatedly in both his fiction and nonfiction. Thinking he could escape personal problems at home, Baldwin moved to Europe in 1948. However, he returned to the States in 1957, compelled by the school desegregation debates. Although he wrote consistently after publishing Mountain, Baldwin never again achieved its success.

Essential Facts

1. Baldwin became a preacher at the age of 14 and delivered sermons for three years, but he later left the church entirely.
2. Baldwin finished Go Tell It on the Mountain not in Harlem, the city of his upbringing and setting of the novel, but in Switzerland.
3. Baldwin felt it was his personal mission to “bear witness to the truth.”
4. Baldwin was of great interest to the F.B.I., which purportedly held more than 1,750 files on his activities.
5. One of Baldwin’s most quoted maxims is “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”