Illustrative cover of a novel, depicting five people walking on a city street in front of a red and brown building with a sign that reads “Temple of the Free Baptised.” Across the street is a row of multicolored townhouse-style apartment buildings with various architectural details including fire escapes and handrails on the front stoops

James Baldwin (1924–1987), author
John O’Hara Cosgrave II (1908–1968), cover artist
Go Tell It on the Mountain
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature

Go Tell It on the Mountain

By the time Knopf published Go Tell it on the Mountain in May 1953, Baldwin was back in Paris and broke, frustrated, and alone. Happersberger had moved on to a relationship with a woman with whom he had recently had a child. Although the novel was misunderstood by some reviewers, The New York Times called it “beautiful, furious,” and Ralph Ellison (author of Invisible Man), a new friend of Baldwin’s, declared it a “story of great poignancy.” Moreover, the act of completing Go Tell It on the Mountain helped Baldwin come to terms with long-suffered wounds—above all, those resulting from his stepfather’s cruelty. With Mountain finally behind him, he was freer to explore new terrains of self-expression.

: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature

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