National Book Award Nomination
King: A Life is one of ten nominees in nonfiction for the National Book Award . Read details here.
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NEWS & REVIEWS
May 14, 2023
The New Definitive Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.: NYT
“Supple, penetrating, heartstring-pulling and compulsively readable . . . The first comprehensive biography of King in three decades . ....
May 14, 2023
A Rave Review in The Washington Post
"King: A Life might be described as a deeply reported psychobiography . . . infused with the narrative energy of a thriller . . . Eig...
May 14, 2023
The Economist Calls King: A Life "Magnificent"
"Jonathan Eig’s magnificent new biography is an overdue attempt to grapple with King in all his complexity. His book will inevitably draw...
Apr 27, 2023
The Real MLK
David Garrow writes in The Spectator that King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig, will succeed Garrow's own Bearing the Cross as the standard...
Apr 27, 2023
Belafonte and MLK
A phone call from MLK to Harry Belafonte changed both men's lives, as I wrote in The New York Times. Read the full story here.
Apr 12, 2023
LBJ Was No Friend of MLK
In The New York Times, Jeanne Theoharis and I wrote about the mistake many of us making in letting LBJ, the media and the general public...
Apr 8, 2023
A Work in Progress: Why I Wrote MLK
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg asked me to explain why I decided to write a book about MLK. I said I was trying to learn from...
Apr 8, 2023
My Review of "The Kneeling Man"
I reviewed Leta McCollough Seletzky's fascinating book about her father's role as a police informant during the civil rights movement....
Mar 21, 2023
"Landmark Biography...Monumental": New York Times
Writing in The New York Times, J. Howard Rosier calls Jonathan Eig's King: A Life with "plenty of new detail" that allows King to "emerge...
Mar 3, 2023
Library Journal Starred Review
"A must for readers interested in moving beyond clichéd catchphrases to see a more complete and complex King..." Read the full review here.
Feb 28, 2023
Famous Writing Routines
When the good folks at Famous Writing Routines asked me to describe my process (and show them my office), I couldn't say no. Read my Q&A...
Feb 22, 2023
A Rave Booklist Review
Eig (Ali, 2017) has a dream that Americans will remember more about our most famous civil rights icon than one, partially improvised...
Feb 21, 2023
A Portrait Fit for King
Lillian Young created a portait of Dr. King using only the words of my favorite King speech, "A Time to Break Silence." In this...
Feb 16, 2023
Kirkus calls King book "Monumental"
Here's the Kirkus review of King: Definitive life of the champion of civil rights. Having placed Muhammad Ali in the canon of civil...
Feb 15, 2023
Starred Review for King: A Life
"[A] sweeping biography. Eig gives a rousing recap of King’s triumphs as a civil rights leader . . . [A] complex, nuanced portrait . . ....
Feb 13, 2023
When Martin Met Coretta
He picked her up for their first date in his green Chevy. She wore a light-blue suit under a long black coat. It was a rainy day in...
Feb 2, 2023
BEST OF CHICAGO
Thank you, Mary Wisniewski and NEW CITY, for the kind write-up ... Just when you think Jonathan Eig can't possibly top his last...
Jan 15, 2023
On MLK Day, don’t shortchange the message
"With civil rights and its history in peril, the upcoming biography, 'King: A Life,' is a groundbreaking book by Chicagoan Jonathan Eig."...
Jan 4, 2023
2023 preview: Most anticipated nonfiction
"KING: A Life" was just included in BookPage's 2023 preview: Most anticipated nonfiction. "Among these 33 nonfiction books we can’t wait...
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