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]
