James Baldwin: Early Novels & Stories (Loa #97): Go Tell It on the Mountain / Giovanni's Room / Another Country / Going to Meet the Man

by James Baldwin

Here, in a Library of America volume edited by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, is the fiction that established James Baldwin's reputation as a writer who fused unblinking realism and rare verbal eloquence. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), tells the story, rooted in Baldwin's own experience, of a preacher's son coming of age in 1930's Harlem. Ten years in the writing, its exploration of religious, sexual, and generational conflicts...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883011515
• ISBN13: 9781883011512
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Library of America
• Length: 992 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A valuable edition of some of the best writings on race.

The Library of America is engaged in publishing definitive texts of the best-known writing in the U.S. Including James Baldwin in this series - and having Toni Morrison edit these volumes - has generated considerable critical review. It is remarkable that James Baldwin can still exercise so much hold over us. Both the fiction and the essays have a kind of raw power: it makes us realize how sensitive the nerve of "race relations" still is. "Go Tell It on the Mountain" - one of the early autobiographical stories - has already become an American classic. Baldwin's homosexuality and his ambiguous feelings towards the white establishment makes this a painful coming-of-age novel. There is no easy access to some one so at-odds with himself and his society - and no greater rewards for anyone interested in the literature of self-discovery. These are fine volumes. They are well worth owning and belong on the shelves of anyone interested in American literature. Not all collections are worth having. The Library of America - and these Baldwin volumes - are worth owning, and they are certainly worth reading.