Description

Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography

A Finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award
Named as one of the Ten Best Books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Time
A New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book of 2023
Selected by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2023
Featured as one of The New Yorker’s essential reads of 2023
Honored by The Christian Science Monitor as one of its best books of the year
Chosen as one of Air Mail’s twelve best books of 2023
A Washington Post and National Independent Bestseller
Highlighted among Publishers Weekly’s best nonfiction books of 2023
Recognized by Smithsonian Magazine as one of the ten best books of 2023

Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life provides readers with the first major new biography in decades of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., combining vivid storytelling with groundbreaking, thoroughly-researched revelations, including information from recently declassified FBI documents. Acclaimed by The New York Times as “the new definitive biography,” Eig captures Dr. King as both an extraordinary inspirational figure and an individual deeply troubled by personal struggles and vulnerabilities behind his stirring public persona.

King delves intimately into MLK’s formative years, exploring his origins, family background, complex relationship with his father, marriage, and interactions with fellow activists. Eig illustrates how King courageously championed peaceful protest and justice despite the relentless pressure and surveillance mounted against him by his own government. Throughout the biography, Eig compellingly portrays King’s experiences, from his early days as a student and preacher to his monumental marches and campaigns in Birmingham, Selma, and ultimately Memphis, where his journey tragically ended.

In offering a fresh portrayal of one of America’s most revered leaders, Jonathan Eig reveals MLK as both a gifted thinker and skilled strategist, a committed radical whose call for economic and racial equality remains profoundly important and relevant today. Illuminating King’s inner life alongside his public achievements, Eig chronicles the extraordinary struggles and triumphs of a modern-day founding father who reshaped America’s identity and became its most mourned martyr.

Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.