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Go Tell it on the Mountain / The Fire Next Time / If Beale Street Could Talk

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Includes: Go Tell It on The Mountain, The Next time by fire and If Beale Street Could Talk all in one volume

650 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2004

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About the author

James Baldwin

395 books17.1k followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.

James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.

He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.

In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.

James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.

Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.

From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.

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5 stars
53 (56%)
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32 (34%)
3 stars
7 (7%)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for Dee Cherry.
2,945 reviews69 followers
January 20, 2019
If Beale Street Could Talk
Reading this story for the 2nd time allowed me to read deeper into this nicely written love story. Fonny & Tish's love for each other was felt throughout. Tish's family & their ability to do everything within their power, to assist with what was needed to help Fonny was amazing. While this story was written many years ago, the situation was one that is still happening today. Mr. Baldwin's powerful writing with this story had me feeling many emotions at this same time-happy for the relationship & sad for their situation. Now that a motion picture has been developed for this story, I am definitely planning to view this book on the screen
Profile Image for Jonathan Monnet.
70 reviews1 follower
June 12, 2018
I have never read anything that Baldwin has ever written that I didn't love. GOAT.
295 reviews
August 7, 2022
I was able to get through Go Tell it on the Mountain because of the backstory's that were incorporated with all the religion talk.

The Fire Next Time didn't strike me as memorable.

If Beale Street Could Talk struck a chord with me for many reasons. Mostly because it is sad to know that this story could have just as easily been written last year than in the '60's, but even more chilling that given the state of the system nowadays, those that are prejudiced against non-white people don't even have to put that much effort into framing them, they just pull out their gun and shoot them.
Profile Image for Susan Raiser.
20 reviews
July 9, 2018
"The Fire Next Time" was one of the most, if not the most, best essays I have ever read on racism and civil rights.
254 reviews
March 16, 2019
(If anyone who knows me reads this collection and is surprised/shocked/offended by my rating - well, now you've been tipped off.)
Profile Image for M.
253 reviews3 followers
December 16, 2008
Excelent writing and moving story of his childhood.
Profile Image for Robert.
20 reviews
January 11, 2015
James Baldwin is masterful at capturing the feelings of being black, being poor, and being human in the US.
74 reviews2 followers
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March 21, 2019
Honestly, while I see the value of this approach, and it's very literary, complex and amazing, because it's Baldwin...I gotta say I prefer If Beale Street Could Talk. I like the emotional novel format over the oratorical, stream of consciousness interiority that this book has. In other words, I loved it, but the first Baldwin novel I read was much more pleasurable to read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews

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