Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

Last updated

Go Tell It on the Mountain
GoTellItOnTheMountain.jpg
First edition
Author James Baldwin
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Semi-autobiographical novel
Publisher Knopf
Publication date
May 18, 1953 [1]
ISBN 0-440-33007-6 (Paperback edition)
OCLC 24659110
LC Class PS3552 .A5 G6

Go Tell It on the Mountain is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by James Baldwin. It tells the story of John Grimes, an intelligent teenager in 1930s Harlem, and his relationship with his family and his church. The novel also reveals the back stories of John's mother, his biological father, and his violent, fanatically religious stepfather, Gabriel Grimes. The novel focuses on the role of the Pentecostal Church in the lives of African Americans, both as a negative source of repression and moral hypocrisy and a positive source of inspiration and community. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Go Tell It on the Mountain 39th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. [2]

Contents

Background

James Baldwin was born in 1924 in Harlem to an unwed mother who had left Maryland for New York and never knew his biological father. Several years later, his mother married a much older laborer and Baptist preacher from Louisiana who had come north in 1919. James Baldwin took his step-father's surname and was raised as his son along with his many half-siblings. He later described his stepfather as "Brooding, silent, tyrannical ... and physically abusive, he was also a storefront preacher of morbid intensity." [3] During his high school years, [4] uncomfortable with the fact that, unlike many of his peers, he was becoming more sexually interested in males than in females, Baldwin sought refuge in religion. [5] At fourteen, he began preaching himself and continued for several years. [6]

Go Tell It on the Mountain was Baldwin's first published novel and draws heavily on Baldwin's personal experience and the experiences of those around him during his childhood in Harlem, particularly those who came to Harlem as part of the Great Migration from the South. It was the result of work that began in at least 1938. [7] Baldwin showed an early manuscript to novelist Richard Wright in 1944. Wright helped Baldwin secure an advance from Harper & Brothers but the deal did not result in publication. In February 1952, Baldwin sent a later manuscript from Paris, where he was living at the time, to New York publishing house Alfred A. Knopf. Knopf expressed interest and Baldwin returned to New York to meet with Knopf. [8] He agreed to rewrite parts of Go Tell It On The Mountain in exchange for a $250 advance ($2,868 today) and a further $750 ($8,605 today) paid when the final manuscript was completed. [9] After the final draft was accepted, Baldwin published excerpts of the novel in two publications: one excerpt was published as "Exodus" in American Mercury and the other as "Roy's Wound" in New World Writing . [10] Baldwin set sail back to Europe on August 28 and Go Tell It On The Mountain was published in May 1953. [10]

Structure and synopsis

Go Tell It on the Mountain has a nonlinear structure. The story takes place during one twenty-four hour period, but contains extended flashbacks which cover a period of over 70 years. The novel is focused on John Grimes, but narrative voice shifts between characters' perspectives, allowing access to the thoughts and reminiscences of John's father, mother, and aunt. [11] The novel is divided into three parts : "Part One: The Seventh Day", "Part Two: The Prayer of the Saints" (divided into parts for Florence, Gabriel, and Elizabeth), and "Part Three: The Threshing-Floor". The first and final parts mainly follow John's thoughts with glimpses of the thoughts of others, while the sections in Part Two mainly follow the thoughts of the character for whom they are named.

Part One

In Part One, John wakes up on his birthday. He sits down for breakfast, expecting something special from his mother. However, he is met with the regular breakfast that is served regularly in the household. His mother then sends him off to do his daily chores like any other day. As he does his chores, he thinks about his relationship with his domineering father, who does not seem to love him, and seems to have much hatred towards John. He also begins to think about his relationship with the storefront church at which his father is a sometimes preacher. The church is a major part in the life of John’s family. His family is extremely religious and spends a lot of their time at and supporting the church. All of the members of the Grimes family are very intertwined within the church. His younger half-brother Roy also resents his father's strictness, but unlike John has begun to rebel by running with a rough crowd. The rebellion against his father leaves a lot of anger within Gabriel and builds upon the constant thought of their father not loving them. Once John has finished his chores, his mother Elizabeth gives him some money for his birthday, and he goes out. He walks through Central Park and down Fifth Avenue, before going into a movie theater to watch a film.

John returns home to find that Roy has gone with some neighborhood boys to pick a fight and has been cut with a knife. John's stepfather Gabriel returns home. Gabriel is angry. He lashes out and looks for someone to blame besides Roy. Gabriel ultimately ends up putting the blame onto Elizabeth and Gabriel’s own sister, Florence, who was in the house with the family at the time. Gabriel's sister Florence and Elizabeth object that no one is to blame but Roy since he went out to pick the fight. Gabriel strikes Elizabeth causing Roy to challenge and curse him. Gabriel takes immense disrespect from Roy and will not settle for it. He decides that as his father, he must do something to Roy because he believes Roy is in no place to challenge Gabriel and question his authority over him. Gabriel whips Roy with a belt until Florence intervenes. Gabriel does not appreciate Florence intervening and talks down to her. John then goes to the church to do chores before evening services. Elisha, an older boy in the church arrives to help and the two exchange playful barbs and then playfully wrestle. The two then finish cleaning the church while talking about John's soul and salvation. Two women arrive followed shortly by John's father, mother, and aunt Florence.

Part Two

Florence's Prayer

Florence recalls her childhood with Gabriel and their mother, a former slave. She recalls her devout mother leading them in prayer after the rape of a girl, Deborah, by a group of white men. She resented that just because Gabriel was a boy, her mother always put his future ahead of hers even though she was much better behaved. Florence eventually left home despite her mother's illness to go north to New York where she met Frank, whom she married. The marriage was not happy as Frank drank and was irresponsible with money, both buying her extravagant gifts and spending on binges. He eventually left her for another woman and died in France in World War I.

Gabriel's Prayer

Gabriel also recalls his wild youth, which ended after Florence left when he was saved at 22. He stopped drinking and debauching and became a preacher. Deborah, whom no one would marry because she had been raped, supports him and helps him after his mother dies and Gabriel asks her to marry him. Back in the church, Gabriel hears a cry of praise and worries that John is being visited by the Holy Spirit. He resents that his two natural sons have not been saved and worries that John, who is not his biological son, will be saved. These thoughts lead him to his affair with a woman named Esther, who subsequently became pregnant and died giving birth to his son, Royal. Royal was raised by Esther's mother and Gabriel never acknowledged him and worried that Deborah would learn the truth. Later, during a period of racial tensions after a black soldier has been lynched, Gabriel encountered Royal walking home and warned him to be careful. Later, Deborah tells Gabriel that Royal left for Chicago where he was killed in a knife fight. Deborah confronts Gabriel, who admits that Royal was his son and Deborah tells him he should pray for forgiveness. Seeing John, Gabriel recalls that he had believed that meeting and marrying Elizabeth was a sign that God had forgiven him.

Elizabeth's Prayer

Elizabeth recalls how after the death of her distant mother, her aunt took her away from her father, whom she loved, because he ran a brothel. Elizabeth resented her and she was never loving. Later Elizabeth fell in love with a store clerk, Richard. The two ran away to New York together. Although they were not married, Elizabeth became pregnant but did not tell Richard right away. Before she told him, he was wrongfully arrested for theft. He refused to confess and was brutally beaten by the police. After he was eventually acquitted and returned home, she decided not to tell him she was pregnant that night, but by morning he had killed himself. After thinking of Richard, she looks at John and wonders if she did the right thing to keep him rather than give him for adoption, and to marry Gabriel who has never loved John. She recalls how she met Florence at her job as a cleaning woman and Florence introduced her to her brother Gabriel, now a widower who recently came north. Although Florence discourages the romance, Elizabeth respects Gabriel's religiosity and believes Gabriel will offer protection and stability for herself and John and agrees to marry him. Her thoughts return to the present and she sees John lying on the floor of the church overcome by a religious vision.

Part Three

John experiences a series of hallucinatory religious visions in which he confronts many of his sins, hopes, and doubts. He sees his father's face and recalls that he has seen his father naked and compares himself to the story of Ham who saw his father Noah naked and was forever cursed - a story which was long used to justify slavery and oppression of black people. After further visions, John sees a glimpse of God and feels himself saved. He returns to consciousness and realizes that it is morning and he has been there all night. All are happy for him except Gabriel who seems unconvinced. The group leaves the church to walk home and Florence, who is terminally ill, confronts Gabriel with a letter from Deborah which reveals her suspicions that Gabriel had fathered a son with Esther. Florence accuses Gabriel of making John and Elizabeth suffer to expiate his own guilt for his sin with Esther and Royal and promises to reveal the truth to Elizabeth. Meanwhile John speaks with Elisha who congratulates and encourages him until they reach John's home.

Setting

The novel takes place in New York City, primarily in Harlem in 1935. The flashbacks provide extended sequences in the American South, primarily in an unnamed town in the Deep South where Gabriel and Florence were born, and in Maryland where Elizabeth was raised. The flashbacks also recall earlier periods in Harlem and to a lesser extent other locations in New York.

In the novel, New York City at once represents freedom and opportunity - especially for Florence and Elizabeth who escape confining family lives, and for John who contemplates the opportunities of the world outside Harlem as he walks through Midtown Manhattan - but also the vulgarity and perdition, particularly for Gabriel and through Gabriel, for John. This duality is used to enhance the other conflicts in the novel, particularly between holiness and worldliness and between John and Gabriel. [12] For Elizabeth especially, but also for Florence and Gabriel, the promise of the city, the promise that drove the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities including New York, turned out to be false. Elizabeth reflects that unlike the South, which promises nothing, the North promises but does not give and what is given can be taken away in an instant. Although the Great Migration led to the Harlem Renaissance and a flourishing of art and culture, the novel's depiction of Harlem is focused on the poverty, violence, drunkenness, and sexual depravity which were also a result.

Themes

Religion

The religious theme pervades all aspects of the novel. However, critics have not agreed on whether it is "an ironic indictment of Christianity" or a "stirring vindication". Barbara Olson summarized the dispute noting that "those favoring vindication number in their ranks such notable critics as Albert Gerard, Donald Gibson, and Shirley Allen" while "those favoring the indictment position include Robert Bone, Michael Fabre, Nathan Scott, Howard Harper, Stanley Macebuh, David Foster and Trudier Harris." [13]

Holiness versus worldliness

Many scholars have reflected on the tension between holiness and worldliness in the novel. [14] The strict Pentecostal religion of the Temple of the Fire Baptized, enforced by John's father, demands that believers live separately from much of the world around them. Much of Part One is taken up with John's thoughts on how he fits in or fails to fit in both with the "holy" people of his father's church and also with the "worldly" people he knows from the neighborhood and school. Charles Scruggs writes that the novel juxtaposes "the earthly and the heavenly, and together they help focus the novel's various themes." [12]

Religious allusion

The novel is rich with biblical and religious allusions and references. [15] [16] The title of the novel is taken from a spiritual of the same name and "each of the three parts has a title and two epigraphs referring to the Bible or Christian hymns, and each of the prayers in Part Two begins with a quotation from a hymn." The title of Part One "The Seventh Day" is a clear reference to the biblical sabbath, the day on which the Lord rested after he created the heavens and the earth. [17] Allen argues this is both the day John is done being "created", i.e. when he comes into his own, but God also made the Sabbath holy, and it is the day John will become holy. [15] Similarly, Part Three "The Threshing-Floor" is an allusion to Matthew 3:12, in which John the Baptist states that on the threshing floor Jesus will separate the wheat (saved) from the chaff (unsaved).

Baldwin includes excerpts from many spirituals throughout the novel but especially as John is undergoing his religious vision and the "saints" of the church sing around him, each of which highlights a particular aspect of the narrative. In addition many of the characters' names refer directly to biblical characters. Critics have compared John both to John the Baptist [15] and John of Patmos [12] who experienced a religious vision in the Book of Revelation. John the Baptist's mother Elizabeth, the archangel Gabriel, the prophetess Deborah, and the Jewish Queen Esther also provide names of significant characters.

Baldwin frequently makes use of direct references including the story of Ham, the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and the story of Lot's wife who looked backward and was turned into a pillar of salt. Other passages, such John's wrestling with Elisha evoke biblical referents, like the story of Jacob wrestling with a mysterious supernatural being in Genesis.

Language

The rhythm and language of the story draw heavily on the language of the Bible, particularly of the King James Version. Many of the passages use the patterns of repetition identified by scholars such as Robert Alter and others as being characteristic of Biblical poetry. [18] In addition, much of the characters' speech is laced with biblical quotations and references, which both provides a note of verisimilitude in the dialogue but also a layer of religious symbolism. [15]

Race

Most critics and scholars have agreed that while race is not the core of the book, it remains an important theme. Shirley Allen wrote, "obviously Baldwin weaves the black-versus-white theme into the central conflict as inextricably as it is woven into the daily consciousness of the characters; but the major conflict of this novel ... is not black against white, but the more universal problem of youth achieving maturity." [15] Reviewer Orville Prescott said in his contemporary review that though the novel is not primarily about race, "Mr. Baldwin is as bitter about race discrimination in a few passing references as many authors are in whole books." [19]

Race comes to the fore for each character in different ways. John questions his father's visceral animosity towards white people, while at the same time feeling acutely aware of his blackness as he leaves Harlem and walks through other parts of the city. Already feeling alienated from the secular culture of Harlem (which has sucked in Roy, who at the same time has gone to pick a fight with white boys in another neighborhood), and from the religious culture represented by his father ("His father said that all white people were wicked, and the God was going to bring them low"). Without ever being quite comfortable, he wonders about the promise of other opportunities in these white-dominated spaces, such as the New York Public Library, which he does not enter (but not, he tells himself, because he is black) and the movie theater, which he finds, despite his momentary trepidation, admits him without comment on his race.

Deborah's rape as an adolescent at the hands of a group of white men, and later a brutal lynching and castration of a black soldier highlight the violence of racism in the South for both Florence and Gabriel. It is noteworthy that Florence's prayer features a rape, reinforcing the status of black women, already highlighted by their mother's favoritism toward Gabriel as the son. Gabriel's prayer features castration, just as he encounters his unacknowledged son and feels acutely his inability to protect him from danger and his biological son's estrangement from him. Elizabeth's prayer reinforces that African Americans have not escaped racism by coming north; the brutal treatment of Richard at the hands of the police and the justice system causes his suicide.

Sexuality

Sex and sexuality are important throughout the novel, particularly for John and Gabriel. The novel engages heavily with traditional religious views of sexuality as something sinful that is to be avoided. The church's stigmas surrounding sexuality impressed on him by his father, have severely impacted John's perspective on sexuality. [20] Several critics have viewed John's religious rebirth in terms of him coming to terms with his sexuality, both as a gay man [21] and as a black man. [22]

Critics have noted the "constant repetition of such phrases as 'the natural man' and 'the old Adam'" in condemnation of man's sexual desire. [23] This conflict is central for John, who at the start of the novel is reflecting on his own "sin" (masturbation) and his burgeoning sexuality. Many scholars read John's conversion as a rejection of his father's strict sexual mores. Angelo Robinson argues that because the novel "alters the traditional Pentecostal conversion experience in that John is not 'cured,' 'healed,' or 'delivered' from his sexual desire during his rebirth" but is "'restored' to confront the reality of his sexual desires while at the same time claiming the promise of salvation" and is ultimately "freed from Gabriel's faith with its severe sexual ethic". [14] Furthermore, Baldwin often used sexual language and imagery in describing religious zeal. [24] This is particularly noticeable when Elisha is called before the congregation to be chastised for his nascent relationship with a girl, Ella Mae, he is described with his "head thrown back, eyes closed, sweat standing on his brow", "stiffened and trembles", "cried out Jesus, Jesus, oh Lord Jesus!", "face congested", and "his body could not contain this passion".

John's homosexuality is also at issue in the novel, though John himself spends less time concerned directly with the kind of his sexual desire than he does with its existence at all. Nevertheless, given the autobiographical details in the novel, scholars have interrogated how John's experience reflects Baldwin's search for an identity as a gay man and perhaps his reflections on his own homosexuality after many years of being out. [25] Because the issue is not addressed directly, scholars have evaluated John's homosexuality through the lens of other themes in the book. "John's struggles with his homosexuality provide the window through which to understand the complexity of his struggles with his spirituality." [14] John's conversation with Elisha and Elisha's kiss led Stanley Macebuh to argue that John's salvation is through homosexual love [24] though others have argued that goes too far. [26] Yet Mason Stokes perhaps goes even further, arguing that both John's struggle against his father and his religious conversion reflect his struggle against "a heterosexuality that terrorizes" him, which is reflected in the conflict between Gabriel's obsession with descendants and his strict religious sexual code. The novel's depictions of heterosexuality (rape, prostitution, adultery, loveless marriages) is contrasted with John's love for Elisha, which "somehow purer, more loving, than the novel's often perverse heterosexual expressions". [21]

Other critics have examined the ties between race and sexuality in the novel. Andrew Connolly draws a connection between Gabriel's guilt over his sexuality and the "persistent racial stereotypes surrounding black male sexuality and the thread of violence that accompanies those stereotypes" and argues that John's conversion represents "the unrealized potential that black men can resist systemic pressures and embrace their sexuality without confirming racist stereotypes." [22] This connection is highlighted as Gabriel recalls the body of a black soldier who has been castrated and lynched.

Family

John's religious struggle is also parallel to his struggle with his father. At the end of the novel, in his moment of "salvation", John is knocked to the ground by the Holy Ghost. He then hears a voice that says, "Get up, John, Get up boy. Don't let him keep you there. You got everything your Daddy got". In this way, his religious revelation, while representing an acceptance of his father's religion, also reflects his rejection of his father's authority and the burgeoning of his own individuality, rather than merely accepting the role his father has created for him within the family. [27]

Other relationships throughout the novel also cast light on the notion of family including Gabriel's emotionally and physically sterile marriage to Deborah, Elizabeth's adoption by her aunt and abandonment by her father, Florence's resentment toward her mother, Gabriel's lack of relationship with his biological son Royal, Elizabeth's relationship with John's biological father Richard, Florence's marriage to the unreliable Frank, and Florence and Gabriel's mother's reflections on her lovers and children while still a slave. [26]

Guilt

An early reviewer noted that "Guilt, guilt, guilt chimes through the book. Gabriel is guilty. His first wife Deborah is guilty though she was the victim of rape. His second wife Elizabeth is guilty, though she loved much. Guilt is visited on his children." [28] The novel opens with John feeling guilty about his masturbation and sexual desires. This is mirrored in the young Gabriel's guilt over his own sexual transgressions which ultimately lead to his conversion. However, Gabriel's guilt over his later inability to live up to his own conversion ideals haunts him and is ultimately the cause of his conflict with John: "John becomes a focal point for [Gabriel's] sense of guilt, encapsulating all the other people who make Gabriel feel guilty" such as Deborah, Esther, Royal, Roy, and Elizabeth; [22] "Gabriel's hatred of John is rooted in his guilt over and his denial of his failures as a father." [29] Meanwhile Elizabeth accepts Gabriel's abuse and tyranny partly as a form of divine punishment on both her and John for her guilt, guilt both for not repenting her love for Richard and for her failure to save him from his suicide. [29]

Women

Though the novel is primarily focused on John and his conflict with Gabriel, female characters play an important role in the novel and explore women's role in society. Florence's prayer in particular articulates a nascent feminism. Although Florence is five years older than her brother Gabriel, he was given the education and respect that Florence desired. Although raised by a single mother, the patriarchal environment meant that Gabriel's future matters more than Florence's. Mason Stokes notes that Florence rejects "the regulatory regimes of the heteropatriarchal household"; not only does she reject the men who lusted after her beauty "not wishing to exchange her mother's cabin for theirs and to raise their children", her final act is to undermine Gabriel's authority by promising to reveal his prior infidelity and abandonment of his son Royal to Elizabeth and the church community. [21]

Adaptations

The Public Broadcasting Service produced a made-for-television movie based on Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1984. Stan Lathan directed the film, with Paul Winfield starring as Gabriel in his adulthood and Ving Rhames playing Gabriel in his youth. [30] Baldwin was pleased with the adaptation, saying in an interview with The New York Times, "I am very, very happy about it ... It did not betray the book." [31]

The novel has been translated into numerous languages, including Swedish, French, Japanese, Finnish, German, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Czech, Arabic, and Dutch.

Reception

Go Tell It on the Mountain was widely praised at its publication and since. It received favorable reviews in The New York Times, [19] The Virginia Quarterly Review , [32] The Hudson Review , [33] and Phylon , [34] among others.

Writing a decade later, Wallace Graves noted in a highly critical essay, that "when the book was reviewed in the summer of 1953, critics were most generous in praise, and except for Anthony West in The New Yorker ... Baldwin was welcomed almost carte blanche as a brilliant young novelist of great promise." [35]

It is generally regarded as Baldwin's best novel [36] [15] and as one of the great African American novels of the 20th Century. [12] In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Go Tell It on the Mountain 39th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. [2] Publisher Franklin Library included it in its "100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" collection published from 1976-1984 for the American Bicentennial. [37]

The novel is regularly assigned as part of curricula in high schools and colleges. However, its assignment has also aroused controversy. In 1988, a teacher in Prince William County, Virginia, offered the book as a ninth-grade summer reading option. Parents challenged the book because it is "rife with profanity and explicit sex". [38] In 1994, the book was challenged in Hudson Falls, New York, after a teacher had assigned the book as required reading. Parents challenged the book because of "recurring themes of rape, masturbation, violence, and degrading treatment of women". [38]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction</span>

Sexual themes are frequently used in science fiction or related genres. Such elements may include depictions of realistic sexual interactions in a science fictional setting, a protagonist with an alternative sexuality, a sexual encounter between a human and a fictional extraterrestrial, or exploration of the varieties of sexual experience that deviate from the conventional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robbie Ross</span> British journalist and art critic; lover of Oscar Wilde (1869–1918)

Robert Baldwin Ross was a British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend, lover, and literary executor. A grandson of the Canadian reform leader Robert Baldwin, and son of John Ross and Augusta Elizabeth Baldwin, Ross was a pivotal figure on the London literary and artistic scene from the mid-1890s to his early death, and mentored several literary figures, including Siegfried Sassoon. His open homosexuality, in a period when male homosexual acts were illegal, brought him many hardships.

<i>East of Eden</i> (novel) 1952 novel by John Steinbeck

East of Eden is a novel by American author and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, published in September 1952. Many regard the work as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, and Steinbeck himself considered it his magnum opus. Steinbeck said of East of Eden: "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years," and later said: "I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this." Steinbeck originally addressed the novel to his young sons, Thom and John. Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells and colors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Baldwin</span> American writer (1924–1987)

James Arthur Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain has been ranked among the best English-language novels. His 1955 essay collection Notes of a Native Son helped establish his reputation as a voice for human equality. Baldwin was a well-known public figure and orator, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Countee Cullen</span> American author (1903–1946)

Countee Cullen was an American poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance.

<i>The Good Soldier</i> 1915 novel by Ford Madox Ford

The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion is a 1915 novel by the British writer Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I, and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham and his seemingly perfect marriage, along with that of his two American friends. The novel is told using a series of flashbacks in non-chronological order, a literary technique that formed part of Ford's pioneering view of literary impressionism. Ford employs the device of the unreliable narrator to great effect, as the main character gradually reveals a version of events that is quite different from what the introduction leads the reader to believe. The novel was loosely based on two incidents of adultery and on Ford's messy personal life, specifically “the agonies Ford went through with his wife and his mistress in the six preceding years."

<i>The Red and the Green</i> Novel by Iris Murdoch

The Red and the Green is a novel by Iris Murdoch. Published in 1965, it was her ninth novel. It is set in Dublin during the week leading up to the Easter Rising of 1916, and is her only historical novel. Its characters are members of a complexly inter-related Anglo-Irish family who differ in their religious affiliations and in their views on the relations between England and Ireland.

<i>The Kite Runner</i> Novel by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet invasion, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

<i>Giovannis Room</i> 1956 novel by James Baldwin

Giovanni's Room is a 1956 novel by James Baldwin. The book focuses on the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar.

<i>Another Country</i> (novel) Novel by James Baldwin

Another Country is a 1962 novel by James Baldwin. The novel is primarily set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France in the late 1950s. It portrayed many themes that were taboo at the time of its release, including bisexuality, interracial couples, and extramarital affairs.

<i>The Postman Always Rings Twice</i> (1946 film) 1946 film by Tay Garnett

The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1946 American film noir directed by Tay Garnett and starring Lana Turner, John Garfield, and Cecil Kellaway. It is based on the 1934 novel of the same name by James M. Cain. This adaptation of the novel also features Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames and Audrey Totter. The musical score was written by George Bassman and Erich Zeisl.

<i>Manhattan Transfer</i> (novel) 1925 novel by John Dos Passos

Manhattan Transfer is an American novel by John Dos Passos published in 1925. It focuses on the development of urban life in New York City from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age as told through a series of overlapping individual stories.

<i>The Amen Corner</i> Three-act play by James Baldwin

The Amen Corner is a three-act play by James Baldwin. It was Baldwin's first work for the stage following the success of his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. The drama was first published in 1954, and inspired a short-lived 1983 Broadway musical adaptation with the slightly truncated title, Amen Corner. Anton Philips' production of The Amen Corner at The Tricycle Theatre in 1987 was the first black-produced and directed play to transfer to the West End of London. Phillips directed a revival of the play, again at The Tricycle, in 1999. The play was revived at the National Theatre in London in the summer of 2013.

<i>Passing</i> (novel) 1929 novel by Nella Larsen

Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen, first published in 1929. Set primarily in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s, the story centers on the reunion of two childhood friends—Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield—and their increasing fascination with each other's lives. The title refers to the practice of "racial passing", which is a key element of the novel. Clare Kendry's attempt to pass as white for her husband, John (Jack) Bellew, is significant and is a catalyst for the tragic events.

<i>Going to Meet the Man</i> 1965 short story collection

Going to Meet the Man, published in 1965, is a collection of eight short stories by American writer James Baldwin. The book, dedicated "for Beauford Delaney", covers many topics related to anti-Black racism in American society, as well as African-American–Jewish relations, childhood, the creative process, criminal justice, drug addiction, family relationships, jazz, lynching, sexuality, and white supremacy.

<i>Just Above My Head</i> 1979 novel by James Baldwin

Just Above My Head is James Baldwin's sixth and last novel, first published in 1979. He wrote it in his house in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.

<i>Tell Me How Long the Trains Been Gone</i> Book by James Baldwin

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is James Baldwin's fourth novel, first published in 1968.

<i>El sacerdote</i> 1978 Spanish film

El Sacerdote is a 1978 Spanish film directed by Eloy de la Iglesia and starring Simón Andreu, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba and Esperanza Roy. The plot centres around a Catholic priest who suffers a personal crisis when his sexuality is suddenly awakened. Unable to reconcile his deep conservative religious faith with his sexual obsession, he spirals into a path of self-punishment. The script was first offered to Pilar Miró.

Pembroke (1894) is a novel written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. It is set in the small town of Pembroke, Massachusetts in the 1830s and 40s. The novel tells the story of a romance gone awry and the dramatic events that follow, which entertain the residents of the small town for years after. As one of Freeman's first novels, Pembroke experienced great success in its time and, although it has only recently experienced a comeback in the academic sphere, it is known for being an exemplary piece of New England local color fiction.

Go Tell It on the Mountain is a 1985 American made-for-television drama film directed by Stan Lathan, based on James Baldwin's 1953 novel of the same name. It stars Paul Winfield, Rosalind Cash, Ruby Dee, Alfre Woodard, Douglas Turner Ward, CCH Pounder, Kadeem Hardison, Giancarlo Esposito, and Ving Rhames in his first film role. The film was initially broadcast on the PBS television program American Playhouse on January 14, 1985.

References

  1. ↑ "Books Published Today". The New York Times : 19. May 18, 1953.
  2. 1 2 "All-Time 100 Novels". Time . October 16, 2005. Archived from the original on October 21, 2005.
  3. ↑ Anderson, Michael (March 29, 1998). "Trapped Inside James Baldwin". The New York Times . Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ Leeming 1994, p. 37.
  5. ↑ Kenan 1994, pp. 34–37.
  6. ↑ Campbell 2021, p. 10.
  7. ↑ Leeming 1994, p. 92.
  8. ↑ Leeming 1994, p. 87.
  9. ↑ Leeming 1994, p. 88.
  10. 1 2 Leeming 1994, p. 89.
  11. ↑ Courage, Richard (June 1989). "James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain: Voices of a People". CLA Journal. 32 (4): 410–425. JSTOR   44322047.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Scruggs, Charles (1980). ""The Tale of Two Cities in James Baldwin's Go Tell It on The Mountain"". American Literature. 52 (1): 1–17. doi:10.2307/2925184. JSTOR   2925184.
  13. ↑ Olson, Barbara K. (Summer 1997). ""Come-to-Jesus Stuff" in James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Amen Corner". African American Review. 31 (2): 295–301. doi:10.2307/3042466. JSTOR   3042466 . Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  14. 1 2 3 Robinson, Angelo R. (March 2005). "The "Other" Proclamation in James Baldwin's "Go Tell It on the Mountain"". CLA Journal. 48 (3): 336–351. JSTOR   44325620 . Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Allen, Shirley S. (1975). ""Religious Symbolism and Psychic Reality in Baldwin's 'Go Tell It on the Mountain'"". CLA Journal. 19 (2): 173–199.
  16. ↑ Olson, Barbara (1997). ""Come-to-Jesus Stuff" in James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain and the Amen Corner". African American Review. 31 (2): 295–301. doi:10.2307/3042466. JSTOR   3042466.
  17. ↑ Genesis 2:2
  18. ↑ Alter, Robert (1987). The Art of Biblical Poetry. Basic Books. ISBN   978-0465004317.
  19. 1 2 Prescott, Orville (May 19, 1953). "Books of the Times". The New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  20. ↑ Giles, James R. (1974). "Religious Alienation and Homosexual Consciousness in 'City of Night' and 'Go Tell It on the Mountain'". College English . 36 (3): 369–380. doi:10.2307/374856. JSTOR   374856.
  21. 1 2 3 Stokes, Mason (Summer 2016). ""A Brutal, Indecent Spectacle": Heterosexuality, Futurity, and Go Tell It on the Mountain". Modern Fiction Studies. 62 (2): 292–306. doi:10.1353/mfs.2016.0035. JSTOR   26421856. S2CID   147715657 . Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  22. 1 2 3 Connolly, Andrew (March 2015). "SHame, Rage, and Endless Battle: Systemic Pressure and Individual Violence in James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain". CEA Critic. 77 (1): 120–142. doi:10.1353/cea.2015.0000. JSTOR   26574760. S2CID   170722735 . Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  23. ↑ Giles, James (November 1974). "Religious Alienation and Homosexual Consciousness in City of Night and Go Tell It on the Mountain". College English. 36 (3): 369–380. doi:10.2307/374856. JSTOR   374856 . Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  24. 1 2 Macebuh, Stanley (May 2, 1973). James Baldwin: A Critical Study. Third Press. p. 61. ISBN   9780893880644.
  25. ↑ Fattah, Nadia (1996). "James Baldwin's Search for a Homosexual Identity in his Novels". Dissertations and Theses. Portland State University. doi: 10.15760/etd.7103 .
  26. 1 2 Bell, George (March 1974). "The Dilemma of Love in Go Tell It on the Mountain and Giovanni's Room". CLA Journal. 17 (3): 397–406. JSTOR   44329064.
  27. ↑ Mootry, Maria (1985). "Baldwin's "GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN"". Explicator. 41 (2): 50–52. doi:10.1080/00144940.1985.11483877.
  28. ↑ Barr, Donal (May 17, 1953). "Guilt Was Everywhere". The New York Times. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  29. 1 2 Lynch, Michael (December 1993). "The Everlasting Father: Mythic Quest and Rebellion in Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain". CLA Journal. 37 (2): 156–175. JSTOR   44322557.
  30. ↑ Internet Movie Database
  31. ↑ Bennetts, Leslie (January 10, 1985). "James Baldwin Reflects On 'Go Tell It' PBS Film". The New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  32. ↑ "Notes on Current Books". Virginia Quarterly Review. 29 (3): lxiv–lxxviii. Summer 1953. JSTOR   26439811 . Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  33. ↑ Monas, Sidney (Autumn 1953). "Fiction Chronicle". The Hudson Review. 6 (3): 468–469. doi:10.2307/3847426. JSTOR   3847426 . Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  34. ↑ Barksdale, Richard K. (Third Quarter 1953). ""Temple of the Fire Baptized"". Phylon. 14 (3): 326–327. doi:10.2307/271479. JSTOR   271479 . Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  35. ↑ Graves, Wallace (March 1964). "The Question of Moral Energy in James Baldwin's 'Go Tell It on the Mountain'". CLA Journal. 7 (3): 215–223. JSTOR   44321434 . Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  36. ↑ Daniels, Lee (December 12, 1987). "James Baldwin, Eloquent Writer In Behalf of Civil Rights, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  37. ↑ "Franklin Library 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" . Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  38. 1 2 Office of Intellectual Freedom (March 26, 2013). "Banned & Challenged Classics". Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. Retrieved June 20, 2021.

Works cited

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.