The dream lives on - Book Shelf

Ebony, Jan, 2004

JANUARY is the month we celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And on this 75th anniversary of Dr. King's birth, during the month of the National King Holiday, that celebration has special significance in the world of books. Dr. King cannot be fully understood without referring to his words and the millions of words written about him by African-American authors. In that spirit, the best tribute to a great national leader would be to spend time this month in your local library with some of the many books on Dr. King, a number of which also are still available at book stores.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (Warner Books, $22.95), edited by Clayborne Carson, is the posthumous autobiography derived from thousands of Dr. King's essays, notes, letters, speeches and sermons. Carson, the celebrated Stanford University historian and director and editor of the Martin Luther King Papers Project, has woven together King's expansive writings to capture his voice and to fully cover his life and philosophy. A CALL TO CONSCIENCE: THE LANDMARK SPEECHES OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (Warner Books, $14.95, trade paperback), edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard, is a collection of 12 of Dr. King's greatest speeches. A TESTAMENT OF HOPE: THE ESSENTIAL WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (HarperCollins, $23.95, trade paperback), edited by James M. Washington, is a major one-volume collection of Dr. King's writings and speeches. I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (HarperCollins, $14.95, trade paperback), edited by James M. Washington with a foreword by Coretta Scott King, includes some of Dr. King's most influential essays. Among the many important books on King by African-American writers are MY LIFE WITH MARTIN LUTHER KING (Puffin, revised edition, $17.95), by Coretta Scott King, which offers a unique and intimate perspective, and Dr. King's own first-person account in the book, STRIDE TOWARD FREEDOM: THE MONTGOMERY STORY. Also noted is the first biography on King, CRUSADER WITHOUT VIOLENCE by Lawrence D. Reddick, providing a critical understanding of King's early years. The latest edition of WHAT MANNER OF MAN: A BIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., $19.95) by EBONY Executive Editor and historian Lerone Bennett Jr. who extends his original coverage of Dr. King development up to his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize with a new chapter on the events leading up to Dr. King's assassination.