Black History Month: James Baldwin

James Baldwin's masterstroke is Go Tell It On the Mountain, the tale of a young effeminate boy growing up in a strongly evangelical Baptist church. In many ways, it is the tale of Baldwin's own life, as least as much as "Sonny's Blues," Baldwin's much anthologized short story about a jazz musician dealing with the throes of heroin addiction. Later novels such as Another Country explored his sexuality more thoroughly than Go Tell It.