Go Tell It on the Mountain [and] Giovanni's Room

London [and] New York: Michael Joseph [and] The Dial Press, (1954) [and] (1956).

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Hardcover. First English edition of *Go Tell It on the Mountain* and first edition of *Giovanni's Room*. Each book is fine in fine dustwrapper. Housed together in a custom cloth clamshell case with morocco spine label gilt. Each book is very warmly Inscribed to Beauford Delaney, the celebrated African-American artist who Baldwin often referred to as his "spiritual mentor." Both Delaney and Baldwin were the sons of preachers and struggled with coming to terms with their homosexuality. The 40-year-old Delaney painted the 16-year-old Baldwin in the nude, and though there is no evidence they were lovers, they remained devoted to each other, first when they both moved to Paris in the 1950s, until Delany's death in a mental institution in 1977. The Inscription in *Go Tell It on the Mountain* (which also has a publisher's presentation slip laid in) reads: "For Beauford - With all my love, and with my gratitude - Jimmy '54, Paris." The Inscription in *Giovanni's Room* reads: ""For Beauford - With my love, Jimmy. Nov. '56, Corsica. Praise God for trials past." A spectacular and meaningful association, Baldwin's first book, a coming-of-age novel, and his second book, one of the most important, and perhaps the most influential gay novel, about an American man living in Paris and his relationships with the men he meets in a Paris gay bar.

Item #392277

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Item #392277 Go Tell It on the Mountain [and] Giovanni's Room. James BALDWIN.
Go Tell It on the Mountain [and] Giovanni's Room
Go Tell It on the Mountain [and] Giovanni's Room
Go Tell It on the Mountain [and] Giovanni's Room
Go Tell It on the Mountain [and] Giovanni's Room