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The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The book "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr." is Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson's amazing account of one of the most impressive leaders to have ever lived.

This is an outstanding biography and it accounts for the full story of Dr. King, literally from cradle to grave. Martin Luther King Jr. at university, when he met his wife Coretta, their children being born, the movement begins, fights and struggles, getting arrested etc. etc. Carson does an absolutely amazing job transporting the reader into Dr. King's thoughts, ideas and feelings. I have only read a couple of other biographies that I rank as high as I rank this one. The other two are Che Guevara and Malcolm X's biographies.

Few people are given strength, means and opportunity to make a real and great impact in the world. Martin Luther King Jr. was not only given such opportunity; he seized upon his opportunity as well. His fights and sacrifices made life better not only for millions of black people in America - his fight made the world a better place to be for all of us.

The author uses Dr. King's letters, college papers, and speeches; such as the "I have a dream" speech from 1963, and the Nobel Peace Prize speech from 1964 when telling his story. I had never read the whole "I have a dream" speech, so I greatly enjoyed that.

Carson has done a great jobs combining his own research with Dr. King's own speeches and writings and this is all masterfully woven together into a unique biography. Dr. King had a huge impact on the Civil Right movement, and he made his way into American history as one of its greatest, most charismatic leaders ever.

My recommendation is given for two reasons. Firstly, Dr. King is an extraordinary interesting subject, but also because of Carson's excellent job writing this biography.

Great read - highly recommended!

Dr. King has become such an American icon that it's easy to forget what a brilliant, passionate man he was. This "autobiography" will remind you. Clayborne Carson does a masterful job of weaving King's writings and speeches together into what serves as a credible autobiography but more importantly, as a chronicle of King's powerful oratory.

I found the book an endless source of inspiration for me as a pacifist and believer in justice and equality for all.

Here are the unforgettable words, not only of the "I Have A Dream Speech" and "The Letter From a Birmingham Jail" but other speeches and writings as well and the stories behind them. We are constantly reminded that King was both a determined and eloquent leader, who was the focal point of America's most succesful social movement.

This is not only unique as an autobiography because it wasn't really written as such, but because it is such a rich source of wisdom and passion.

It's a book to be read and kept handy. I'll be referring to it often and reading it again.

I was born the same year that MLK was assassinated, and grew up hearing snippets of his speeches on TV documentaries. I appreciated his stature as a leader in the abstract. Listening to his speeches on these tapes redoubled my esteem. I felt like I was there; I was really moved. The effect is different from, and maybe better than TV footage, because the mind's eye is not trapped watching the preselected pictures. You think more about MLK's message. Also, I give credit to Carson for setting the stage for each speech with good background information. Levar Burton reads it with passion in his voice.

My one criticism is that it is not really an autobiography, as it says on the cover. The background to MLK's speeches (which are the real recordings) is read in the first person, but is not something that he actually wrote. With more effort, the editors could have strung together enough original material by MLK and his correspondents to make a coherent narrative. For example, the one volume collection of Lincoln's writings edited by Roy Basler is just selected letters in order by date, but it reads like a gripping drama. That's a more honest and better approach.

Still, I am really pleased and proud to be the owner of these MLK tapes. I give them six months before I wear them out.

My struggle with the book was a result of Carson's choice to write the book in first person, as if MLK's words were his. Bad call. It operated more as a distraction for me than a glimpse into King's mind, forcing me to continually stop and wonder whether this was in fact what King thought or if it was conjecture and educated guessing. I disagree with that apporach wholeheartedly. Carson, whom I understand was commissioned to write this book by the King estate, would have been better off to write a biography using these previously unavailable documents rather than trying to speak for a dead man. And a great one, at that.

Clayborne Carson has done a great job of combining MLK's writings and speeches into a single narrative that tells the story of King's life and the amazing impact he had on the U.S. civil rights movement. This is not Mr. Carson writing from the perspective of Dr. King; it's King's words almost verbatim, with relatively minor editorial changes to allow disparate writings to flow together into an autobiography that otherwise simply would not exist. Of course, as any autobiography would, this book only tells the story of the civil rights movement from a single perspective -- but in this case, that perspective gives truly unique insight into the philosophy that drove King every day of his life. And it's impossible not to be moved by King's last sermon, which ends with an inspiring, heart-wrenching foreshadowing of the fate that awaited him the very next day.

When every child turns 16 in this country they should be required to read this book. I can't think of any other book that hit me so hard in the gut. Each page was a revelation, a call to humanity. MLK wasn't a saint but he was such a deeply focused, powerful person that his influence will be felt as long as this species roams this earth. Every chapter is perfectly put together, cohesive and augmented by personal papers, speeches, etc. the Editor knows his subject and it shows in the way the book, the story is organized. Simply inspirational.

The autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. is a manifestation of his thoughts, words, philosophies, and his way of life, reborn and written by Clayborne Carson. Carson has done a great job re-writing Kings life, and combining his letters, and speeches, and notes with his words to create the world of Martin Luther King again for us. The book gives us good insight on MLK's life, and his impact on the civil rights movement. You get to know his standpoints well, and how the man worked things out. Sadly you mostly can read about MLK's life inside the civil rights movement, and less about him at home, or his relationship with his family. This is a good one to help you gain insight on the civil rights movement of that time, and all in all, is a great and interesting book to read even if the civil rights is not your main interest.

The autobiography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a triumph. Although not an "autobiography" in a strict sense, this book offers a unique glimpse into the life of one of history's most important activists. Clayborne Carson, through an exhaustive research of Dr. King's writings, speeches, and tapes, has put together a very seamless and elegant compilation that could very well have been an autobiography had Dr. King lived.

The work begins with thoughts about Dr. King's childhood, his description of his family, his years at Boston University, and his first encounter with his wife. Many of his philosophical thoughts, that grew in his formative years and yet radically influenced his peace movement, are described with an eloquent speech and astounding detail. His love for his wife Coretta and the unconditional devotion to her (and vice versa) permeates throughout this book. Dr. King vividly describes his devotion to the principles of nonviolence, his thoughts on Thoreau and Gandhi, the tales of his travels to Africa and India, his views on Kennedy, LBJ, and Malcolm X. Nonviolent resistance, he insists, is not nonresistance to violence, but a much more active and intense undertaking. Many of his famous speeches are included, and yet there are scores of other lines and quotations throughout this work that I read several times over for their simple beauty and power. "Injustice anywhere, Dr. King writes, is a threat to justice everywhere."

This work is a must-read. In a world that is currently so wrapped up in war and hostility, where violence seems to have gained the upper hand in so many areas of the world, Dr. King's love, wisdom, perserverance, and unshakable search for peace still stand out as lessons to us all.

Martin Luther King, Jr., is without a doubt one of the most influential and pivotal figures in twentieth-century history. In addition to his work as a Civil Rights leader, his role as a father and pastor, he also was an extensively published writer. However, he never had the chance to write an autobiography in the traditional sense. We as readers in the present day and the future have lost the private details that might have been fleshed out in a proper autobiography, but this skillfully crafted work by Clayborne Carson has given us a religious and political autobiography, revealed in King's almost countless papers (published and unpublished), interviews, letters, sermons and public statements.

Carson, author and editor of many books relating to the Civil Rights struggle, edited a collection of King's speeches entitled 'A Knock at Midnight', and was selected by the King estate to put together this in conjunction with (according to Carson) dozens of staff and student workers forming part of the King Papers Project. Carson used particular methodology consistently in his reconstruction - that of relying primarily on the words of King himself (utilising early drafts of later writings to discern the difference between authorial and editorial intentions) and developing them as if this overall narrative account was constructed near the end of King's life.

King's autobiography begins at the beginning, with is childhood as a preacher's kid (who was himself a preacher's kid, who was himself a preacher's kid, etc.). King said, 'of course I was religious.... I didn't have much choice.' King explains the different strands in his life, that of being both militant and moderate, idealistic and realistic, as beginning here. Here he developed questions ('how could I love a race of people who hated me?') and some answers (he learned that racial injustice was paralleled by economic injustice, and realised that poor white people were exploited also).

King's call to ministry and call to ethical and prophetic witness in the world developed through his schooling at Morehouse College, Crozer Seminary, and Boston University, where he developed interest in theology and social philosophy that would lead him to eventually to his ideas of civil rights activitsm. This would not take practical shape, however, until he was back in the South and working at churches and participating in actual events. He describes his involvement with Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Movement as a mountaintop experience, which also led to an awakening, both in King and in the community, of the power of nonviolent action a la Mahatma Gandhi.

It is almost incomprehensible to read this autobiography and realise that in a span of barely more than a dozen years (Rosa Parks was arrested for her action in December of 1955; King was assassinated in 1968) so much of what we consider to be the central history of the Civil Rights struggle occurred. Within the pages of text, King talks about the struggles of the common people and the dealings with the powerful, from the police in Alabama jurisdictions to dealing with federal government officials and organisations.

In the midst of all of this work, King managed to remain a family man, devoted to his wife and children, and a tireless worker in the church. Carson admits to not being able to develop too much of an interior autobiography in these kinds of sections (as even in King's private papers and writings, too much remains unrecorded), but his life in this regard still comes through many aspects of his writings, sermons and speeches.

This is an incredible book, and should be read as a required part of the education of an American, as it recounts a remarkable and astonishing part of history that continues to shape the direction of the nation to this day.

THis is definitely the best biography on Dr. King in bookstores. Covers his life very well and without much opinion, Clayborne Carson gives you a very clear picture of his life. Having transcripts of telegraphs, letters, and speeches added a lot to this book. If you are looking for a way to find out about Dr. King, this is the book to read.