UI Press | David Levering Lewis

King

A Biography

This edition updates Lewis's notable assessment of Martin Luther King, Jr., a book acclaimed by leading historians and critics when it appeared shortly after King's death. Published a decade after the civil rights activist's assassination, this edition includes new information and speculations on FBI harassment of King, the Senate findings on intelligence operations and law abuse, and the sinister implications of various conspiracy theories surrounding his tragic death. This biography skillfully wends through the corridors in which the "prince of peace" held court, posing the right questions and providing a keen measure of the man whose complex career and misunderstood mission continue to enthrall scholars and general readers.

"Easily the best book on King to date . . . an excellent introduction to the complex career and personality of a major figure of our times."--August Meier, Saturday Review

"An excellent book that will do more to keep Martin Luther King and his 'dream' alive in a different era than would more fulsome tributes."--American Historical Review

David Lewis has written a striking book that raises arguments about King and the movement he sprang from."--Julian Bond

The measurement of a man of Dr. King's proportions, a world figure in whom reflection and action were wed, is no easy task, but one which Professor Lewis performs admirably."--Benjamin Quarles

"Well researched, clearly written and well-balanced . . . David L. Lewis's book is a valuable one."--New York Times Book Review

David Levering Lewis (born May 25, 1936) is an American historian and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, for part one and part two of his biography of W.E.B. Du Bois (in 1994 and 2001, respectively). He is the first author to win two Pulitzer Prizes for biography for back-to-back volumes.[1] The author of seven books and editor of two more, Lewis's field is comparative history with special focus on twentieth-century United States social history. His interests include nineteenth-century Africa and twentieth-century France. [edit] Life Lewis was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father, John Henry Lewis, Sr., graduated from Yale University School of Divinity and received the M.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago, and was principal of Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. His mother taught high school math. David Levering Lewis is an American historian and the author of seven books. He has won two back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of W.E.B. Du Bois. He is also 1994 winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize.