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The Autobiography of Malcolm X » (Reissue)

Book cover image of The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

Authors: Malcolm X, Ossie Davis (Afterword), Alex Haley
ISBN-13: 9780345350688, ISBN-10: 0345350685
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Date Published: October 1987
Edition: Reissue

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Author Biography: Malcolm X

Book Synopsis

If there was any one man who articulated the anger, the struggle, and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, that man was Malxolm X. His AUTOBIOGRAPHY is now an established classic of modern America, a book that expresses like none other the crucial truth about our times.
"Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book."
TEH NEW YORKTIMES

Sacred Fire

The Autobiography of Malcolm X is the story of one of the remarkable lives of the twentieth century. Malcolm X, as presented in this as-told-to autobiography, is a figure of almost mythic proportions; a man who sunk to the greatest depths of depravity and rose to become a man whose life's mission was to lead his people to freedom and strength. It provides a searing depiction of the deeply rooted issues of race and class in America and remains relevant and inspiring today. Malcolm X's story would inspire Alex Haley to write Roots, a novel that would, in turn, define the saga of a people.

Malcolm Little was born in Nebraska in 1925, the seventh child of Reverend Earl Little, a Baptist minister, and Louise Little, a mulatto born in Grenada to a black mother and a white father. Malcolm X quickly grew to hate the society he'd grown up in. After his father was killed, his mother was unfairly denied insurance coverage and his family fell apart. Young Malcolm went from a foster home to a reformatory, to shining shoes in the speakeasies and dance halls of Boston. After getting work as a Pullman porter, he went to New York and fell in love with Harlem. His stint as a drug dealer and petty crook landed him in jail, where he became a devout student of the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad. That was when he figured out that "he could beat the white man better with his mind than he ever could with a club." Malcolm X's subsequent quest for knowledge and equality for blacks led to his unreserved commitment to the liberation of blacks in American society.

What makes this book extraordinary is the honesty with which Malcolm presents his life: Even as he regrets the mistakes he made as a young man, he brings his zoot-suited, swing-dancing, conk- haired Harlem youth to vivid life; even though he later turns away from the Nation of Islam, the strong faith he at one time in that sect's beliefs, a faith that redeemed him from prison and a life of crime, comes through. What made the man so extraordinary was his courageous insistence on finding the true path to his personal salvation and to the salvation of the people he loved, even when to stay on that path meant danger, alienation, and death.

Table of Contents

Subjects

African Americans African American Biography & Memoir African American General Biography
African Americans African American Biography & Memoir African American Political & Historical Biography
African Americans African American History Politics and Government - History
African Americans African American History Civil Rights - African American History
African Americans African American - General & Miscellaneous Law, Politics, & Government
African Americans African American - General & Miscellaneous Religion
Biography Politicos Labor Leaders, Activists, & Social Reformers
Biography Religious Biography Muslims - Biography
Biography All Biography Peoples & Cultures - Biography
Biography All Biography Political Biography
Biography All Biography Religious Biography
Christianity Islam Muslims - Biography
Christianity Religious Biography Muslims - Biography
Christianity All Religion Islam
History African American History African American Biography & Memoir
History African American History African American History
History African American History General & Miscellaneous
History American History United States History - 20th Century - 1945 to 2000
History American History United States History - African American History
History Political History Political Biography
History Religious History Islam
Nonfiction Social Sciences Islamic Studies
Political Books & Current Events Books Political Biography Labor Leaders, Activists, & Social Reformers
Political Books & Current Events Books All Politics Political Biography
Religion Books Islam Muslims - Biography
Religion Books Religious Biography Muslims - Biography
Religion Books All Religion Islam
Science & Nature Social Sciences Islamic Studies
Social Sciences Islamic Studies Muslims - Biography
Christianity Christianity Islam
Christianity Christianity Religious Biography
Christianity Christianity All Religion
Nonfiction Biography Politicos
Nonfiction Biography Religious Biography
Nonfiction Biography All Biography
Nonfiction History African American History
Nonfiction History American History
Nonfiction History Political History
Nonfiction History Religious History
Nonfiction Politics & Current Affairs Political Biography
Nonfiction Politics & Current Affairs All Politics
Nonfiction Religion Islam
Nonfiction Religion Religious Biography
Nonfiction Religion All Religion
Religion Books Christianity Islam
Religion Books Christianity Religious Biography
Religion Books Christianity All Religion