Yesterday I secured a second mortgage and headed out to purchase an expensive copy of King: A Life by acclaimed biographer Jonathan Eig. There is no shortage of biographies of Martin Luther King Jr., and a number of them are very good. The reviews for Eig's work, including by other King biographers, declare it to be a triumph.
Eig had access to previously unreleased FBI files on King (J Edgar Hoover hated him) and to the audio tapes created by his wife, Coretta, after his assassination. Not only is it the most comprehensive exploration of the first 25 years of MLK's life, Coretta gets the attention she deserves for her considerable contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, along with being the anchor for the family.
In the prologue Eig tantalizes with "this book seeks to recover the real man from the gray mist of hagiography. In the process of canonizing King, we've defanged him, replacing his complicated politics and philosophy with catchphrases that suit one ideology or another."
In the past few years certain American Republicans and even white supremacists have quoted King for their purposes and his family has pushed back against the misappropriation of his words and deeds. King was a flawed person of profound faith who sensed from an early age that God had called him to act. He did in ways that resulted in him being the most hated man in America, despite and because of his relentless call to non-violent change.
I don't know whether I'll dutifully slip this latest acquistion into the pile of books to read or dive in immediately. Either way, I'm convinced that King: A Life will be an awakening.
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