James Baldwin Publishes 'Go Tell It on the Mountain'

James Baldwin's debut novel 'Go Tell It on the Mountain,' published in May 1953, drew on his Harlem childhood and the Black church to create one of the most powerful works of American autobiographical fiction of the twentieth century. The novel announced Baldwin as a major literary voice and began his lifelong exploration of race, identity, religion, and sexuality in American life. It remains a foundational text of both African American literature and American literature broadly.