James Baldwin’s semi-autobiographical first novel is a history of family and faith, sorrow and salvation beginning with the birthday of John, a fourteen year old boy growing up in a deacon’s family in Harlem, the novel attempts to discover the roots of John’s spiritual despair and mental anguish by exploring his family’s turbulent history. With Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin brought modern literary sensibilities to bear on the story of African Americans during the Great Migration. In doing so, he helped expand the scope and reach of American fiction, while at the same time defining the African American literary movement that can still be experienced in the works of authors like Toni Morrison and Sapphire.

Recommended by Dale