Ann McNett - CliffsNotes on Baldwins Go Tell It on the Mountain

Copyright 2001 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

www.hmhco.com

cliffsnotes.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

Trademarks: CliffsNotes, the CliffsNotes logo, Cliffs, cliffsnotes.com, and all related trademarks, logos, and trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

eISBN 978-0-544-18174-8
v1.1216

James Baldwin was born the illegitimate son of Emma Berdis Jones on August 2, 1924, in Harlem Hospital. In Jamess third year, his mother married the Reverend David Baldwin, a fire and brimstone lay preacher, who legally adopted James.

James attended Public School 24 in Harlem, where he met a young white teacher named Orilla Miller. Nicknamed Bill by the young Baldwin, Miller was to have a profound effect on Baldwins life. She directed his first play and encouraged his talents. The two discussed literature and went to museums together. Miller even won David Baldwins permission to take James to the theater, an activity strictly forbidden by the elder Baldwin. Later, James was to give credit to Bill for her lack of racism. He explained that it was certainly partly because of her, who arrived in my terrifying life so soon, that I never really managed to hate white people.

After elementary school, Baldwin went on to Frederick Douglass Junior High. It was here that he met Countee Cullen (an American poet) and Herman W. Porter, both of whom were teachers at the school during the years that Baldwin attended, and both would have a lasting impact on his life. Cullen encouraged James to participate in the schools literary club, which he was the founder and advisor of. Baldwin was enchanted by Cullens warmth and openness, and soon Cullen became a father figure to the troubled and lonely youth.

Porter was in charge of The Douglas Pilot, the school magazine, and made Baldwin the editor of the publication to which he would also contribute. Porter introduced James to the public library and taught him how to overcome the racial slurs and hostility that he sometimes encountered there. These two teachers and role models had a profound impact on Baldwins life by showing him that black men could be successful, educated, and strong.

In the summer of 1938, James experienced a religious conversion and began preaching. Standing in the pulpit, he was overcome with a sense of wonder and power in the art of rhetoric. The speaking skills that he developed as a minister would later serve him well in his vocation as a writer. More immediately, however, James found that his position as minister gave him power at home. He soon began to openly defy his father, who was forced to surrender now that his son was also a member of the ministry. For instance, when David suggested that James find a job and quit school, the younger Baldwin refused, opting to continue on to high school.

Luckily James had taken the advice of Countee Cullen and applied for admittance to the prestigious De Witt Clinton High School, from which scores of successful and famous people had graduated. His classmates were mainly white, but they came from liberal families who were more interested in Jamess talent than his skin tone. Here he formed close ties with other students with whom he worked on The Magpie, the schools newspaper.

At 16, James left the ministry because of what he perceived as hypocrisy and racism, which had destroyed his faith in the church. This split had its beginnings when James met Beauford Delany. A mutual friend had introduced the two at a point when James was very depressed and confused. Delany, an artist, was perhaps the most influential person in Baldwins life. He introduced the young man to music, took him to galleries, taught Baldwin to think like an artist, and showed him that it was possible to make a living at it.

After graduation, Baldwin found it necessary to find full time employment so that he could support himself. He moved in with a friend but was forced to return home when he was fired from his job. When he returned home, he found his mother pregnant and his father in the hospital due to his deteriorating mental capacity. The last Baldwin baby, Paula, was born on July 29, 1943. It was on the same day that his father passed away. James and Beauford scraped together enough money for a funeral service, held on Jamess birthday.

Baldwin continued to live at home in an attempt to support his family but was unable to keep a job. Resentment at his responsibilities to his family precluding the chance of his success as a writer became unbearable. He moved out and found work in Greenwich Village. A restaurant owner named Connie Williams, who was sympathetic to Baldwins plight, took the young man under her wing and employed him as a waiter. She often let him stay at her apartment and gave him food for his family.

During this period, Baldwin met many artists and writers who frequented Williams restaurant. He also began his search for his sexual identity by having a number of one-night affairs with men but also continuing to have relationships with women. He met and fell in love with a man named Eugene Worth. Afraid of losing a friendship by revealing his true feelings, Baldwin never expressed his love. Unfortunately, Worth committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after making an oblique comment about the possibility that he was in love with Baldwin. James never recovered from the loss of his friend.

It was also during this time that Baldwin began to write seriously. A young woman who had been impressed by Baldwins reading of his manuscript In My Fathers House (a precursor to Go Tell It on the Mountain) introduced him to the American novelist Richard Wright. Wright was also impressed with the work of the younger man and helped to secure for him a Eugene F. Saxon Foundation Fellowship. The fellowship, which included $500, was awarded to Baldwin in November of 1945. Unfortunately, In My Fathers House was not deemed worthy of being published, and Baldwin was depressed and fearful that he had not lived up to the Wrights expectations.

In 1947, Baldwin was finally published professionally; however, it wasnt a novel but a book review that launched his writing career. This book review was followed by a number of essays. His first work of fiction was published in October of 1948. A proposed project with a photographer friend about Harlem churches won Baldwin a Rosenwald fellowship. Though the project was never completed, it did give Baldwin the money needed to make his long dreamed of trip to Paris. Ironically, it was in Paris that Baldwin came to understand himself, his homeland, and his culture.