Sam Shaw portrait of James Baldwin, 1960

Treasures | James Baldwin: Mountain to Fire

HOSTED BY HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.

When James Baldwin's debut novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953, it announced his arrival as a talented young author to watch. Within a decade, Baldwin had become one of America’s most famous writers, and his passionate essays in The Fire Next Time (1963) had established him as a leading voice of the Civil Rights Movement.

Learn more about James Baldwin’s rising years by listening to the audio guide for James Baldwin: Mountain to Fire, a special display within the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures. Our host, the award-winning author, scholar, and documentary filmmaker Henry Louis Gates, Jr., introduces a team of experts who shed light on some of the Library’s most compelling holdings by and about Baldwin, most from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

James Baldwin: Mountain to Fire will be on display at the Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building through mid-2025. Explore more resources related to James Baldwin and NYPL’s special programs and events throughout his centennial year.