Martin Luther King Jr. created a mountain of letters, speeches and sermons. But sadly, the great American civil rights leader never penned the story of his life.
Or did he? After studying the King archives for more than 13 years, Stanford history professor Clayborne Carson became convinced that he had King's autobiography right there in his hands. "I knew that King's papers illuminated his childhood, his academic experiences and every significant episode of his public life," the scholar explains. "My task… was to assemble King's dispersed autobiographical writings into a coherent narrative."
Carson believes that the result, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., is "a comprehensive narrative of his life written by him and enriched by his reflections about the meaning of his life." Published in November by Warner Books, the volume mostly offers King's perspective on his public life. But the book includes some previously unpublished letters that illuminate King's private world.
Some critics and scholars are nervous about Carson's decision to call the work an autobiography. They contrast it with Alex Haley's autobiography of Malcolm X, which was based on Haley's own extensive interviews with the subject. Time magazine dismissed Carson's work as a "cut-and-paste job." But others see no problem with Carson's approach, predicting that the book will be embraced by a public hungry for the story of King's life. In any case, they note, if anyone could successfully weave together the threads of King's autobiographical writings, it would be Carson.
A former student activist who marched with King in Washington, Carson began compiling and publishing scholarly editions of King's significant writings in 1985, after the slain leader's widow asked him to head the King Papers Project. Since then, the historian has edited three volumes of King's correspondence, sermons, speeches and published writings. The fourth of 14 projected volumes, which covers events in 1957 and 1958, is due out next year.
