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Malcolm X. Written "with the assistance of" Alex Haley. Introduction by M.S. Handler. Epilogue by Alex Haley : THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X [1ST EDITION, 2ND PRINTING]

Grove Press, 1965

8vo; First edition, second printing [Stated], from same year as 1st printing. Not Book Club. Original publiher's cloth in dust jacket, 8vo, 455 pages. “In 1998, Time named The Autobiography of Malcolm X one of ten 'required reading' nonfiction books.The Autobiography of Malcolm X has influenced generations of readers In 1990, Charles Solomon writes in the Los Angeles Times, 'Unlike many '60s icons, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, with its double message of anger and love, remains an inspiring document.'[81] Cultural historian Howard Bruce Franklin describes it as 'one of the most influential books in late-twentieth-century American culture', and the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature credits Haley with shaping 'what has undoubtedly become the most influential twentieth-century African American autobiography'....The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between civil and human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination. The Autobiography is a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. After the leader was killed, Haley wrote the book's epilogue.He described their collaborative process and the events at the end of Malcolm X's life.While Malcolm X and scholars contemporary to the book's publication regarded Haley as the book's ghostwriter, modern scholars tend to regard him as an essential collaborator who intentionally muted his authorial voice to create the effect of Malcolm X speaking directly to readers. Haley influenced some of Malcolm X's literary choices. For example, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam during the period when he was working on the book with Haley. Rather than rewriting earlier chapters as a polemic against the Nation which Malcolm X had rejected, Haley persuaded him to favor a style of 'suspense and drama'. According to Manning Marable, 'Haley was particularly worried about what he viewed as Malcolm X's anti-Semitism' and he rewrote material to eliminate it.When the Autobiography was published, The New York Times reviewer described it as a 'brilliant, painful, important book'. In 1967, historian John William Ward wrote that it would become a classic American autobiography. In 1998, Time named The Autobiography of Malcolm X as one of ten 'required reading' nonfiction books. James Baldwin and Arnold Perl adapted the book as a film; their screenplay provided the source material for Spike Lee's 1992 film Malcolm X.….Eliot Fremont-Smith, reviewing The Autobiography of Malcolm X for The New York Times in 1965, described it as 'extraordinary' and said it is a 'brilliant, painful, important book'.[73] Two years later, historian John William Ward wrote that the book 'will surely become one of the classics in American autobiography'....Considering the literary impact of Malcolm X's Autobiography, we may note the tremendous influence of the book, as well as its subject generally, on the development of the Black Arts Movement. Indeed, it was the day after Malcolm's assassination that the poet and playwright, Amiri Baraka, established the Black Arts Repertory Theater, which would serve to catalyze the aesthetic progression of the movement. Writers and thinkers associated with the Black Arts movement found in the Autobiography an aesthetic embodiment of his profoundly influential qualities, namely, 'the vibrancy of his public voice, the clarity of his analyses of oppression's hidden history and inner logic, the fearlessness of his opposition to white supremacy, and the unconstrained ardor of his advocacy for revolution 'by any means necessary.''bell hooks writes 'When I was a young college student in the early seventies, the book I read which revolutionized my thinking about race and politics was The Autobiography of Malcolm X. David Bradley adds:She [hooks] is not alone. Ask any middle-aged socially conscious intellectual to list the books that influenced his or her youthful thinking, and he or she will most likely mention The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Some will do more than mention it. Some will say that ... they picked it up—by accident, or maybe by assignment, or because a friend pressed it on them—and that they approached the reading of it without great expectations, but somehow that book ... took hold of them. Got inside them. Altered their vision, their outlook, their insight. Changed their lives.Max Elbaum concurs, writing that 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X was without question the single most widely read and influential book among young people of all racial backgrounds who went to their first demonstration sometime between 1965 and 1968.'At the end of his tenure as the first African-American U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder selected The Autobiography of Malcolm X when asked what book he would recommend to a young person coming to Washington, D.C.” (Wikipedia). Very light shelf wear,staining, and toning to paper, binding remains very good. In edgeworn and rubbed original jacket (price: $7.50), showing a bit of staining to base of the spine panel, still attractive. Overall a nice copy of the second printing of this exceedinly important work.

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