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KING: A LIFE

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For A Limited Time...

Get this original MLK swag, including:

a signed bookplate
original sticker by historical artist, Lillian Young

Step 1: Preorder the book

Step 2: Send a photo of the receipt to mlkjrbook@gmail.com

As Dr. King himself once said, order now while supplies last!

An Intimate Portrait

The first major biography of King in 40 years, based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of newly discovered documents, this is King like you've never seen him before: flawed, brave, radical...and under heavy attack by the FBI.

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“A landmark biography … Monumental.”

New York Times

“Supple, penetrating, heartstring-pulling and compulsively readable... The first comprehensive biography of King in three decades...and it supplants David J. Garrow’s 1986 biography Bearing the Cross as the definitive life of King... [Eig’s is] a clean, clear, journalistic voice, one that employs facts the way Saul Bellow said they should be employed, each a wire that sends a current...Eig’s book is worthy of its subject.”

―Dwight Garner, The New York Times

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Based on New FBI Files

The first King biography written with access to thousands of recently released pages of FBI files as well as thousands of personal papers from King's associates and friends.

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Media Highlights

The Real MLK

Apr 27

The Real MLK

David Garrow writes in The Spectator that King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig, will succeed Garrow's own Bearing the Cross as the standard...

A Work in Progress: Why I Wrote MLK

Apr 8

A Work in Progress: Why I Wrote MLK

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg asked me to explain why I decided to write a book about MLK. I said I was trying to learn from...

My Review of "The Kneeling Man"

Apr 8

My Review of "The Kneeling Man"

I reviewed Leta McCollough Seletzky's fascinating book about her father's role as a police informant during the civil rights movement....

Mahalia Jackson at Soldier Field in Chicago. Photo: Lowell K. Riley.

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FBI file

Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta King. Photo: AP

King at Soldier Field. Photo: Lowell K. Riley

King at Soldier Field. Photo: Lowell K. Riley

King at Soldier Field. Photo: Lowell K. Riley

King at Soldier Field. Photo: Lowell K. Riley

King at Soldier Field. Photo: Lowell K. Riley

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King at Fire Island in New York. Photo: courtesy of William Wachtel.

King upon release from court in Montgomery. Photo: AP.

White anti-protesters in Chicago, 1966. Photo: AP

King and Abernathy arrested in Birmingham. Photo: AP

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King at the March on Washington, 1963. Photo: Bob Adelman.

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Jonathan Eig with attorney Fred D. Gray.

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With Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King. Photo: Library of Congress.

Tom Dent at King family grave.

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With Fred Shuttlesworth and Rosa Parks. Photo: Library of Congress.

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At the White House following March on Washington.

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King and Malcolm X meet for only time. Photo: Library of Congress.

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King and his son examine cross burned on their yard. Photo: Library of Congress

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King and Al Raby at Chicago pool hall. Photo: Bob Fitch