Go Tell It on the Mountain: Introduction by Edwidge Danticat (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)

ISBN: 1101907614

Author: Baldwin, James

Condition: New

From one of the great American writers of the twentieth century-a coming-of-age story about a fourteen-year-old boy questioning the terms of his identity, the racism he faces, and the double-edged role of religion in his life. Presented here in stunning hardcover with an introduction by Edwidge Danticat, award-winning author of Everything Inside.Vivid imagerylavish attention to details. [A] feverish story. -The New York TimesOriginally published in 1953, Go Tell It on the Mountain-based in part on James Baldwins childhood in Harlem-was his first major work. With a potent combination of lyrical compassion and resonant rage, he portrays fourteen-year-old John Grimes, the stepson of a fire-breathing and abusive Pentecostal preacher in Harlem during the Depression. The action of this short novel spans a single day in Johns life, and yet manages to encompass on an epic scale his familys troubled past and his own inchoate longings for the future, set against a shining vision of a city where he both does and does not belong. Baldwins story illuminates the racism his characters face as well as the double-edged role religion plays in their lives, both oppressive and inspirational.In prose that mingles gritty vernacular cadences with exalted biblical rhythms, Baldwins rendering of his young protagonists struggle to invent himself pioneered new possibilities in American language and literature.Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.