Unheroic in appearance, given to "deacon-sober suits" and "ponderous gravity," Martin Luther King Jr. ushered in an epochal era of change in the United States. Closely watching King's journey from Montgomery to Birmingham to the Lincoln Memorial to Memphis was journalist Marshall Frady, who honors the minister's achievement and spirit in this lucid biography.

"Almost a geological age ago, it seems now--that great moral saga of belief and violence that unfolded in the musky deeps of the South during the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties." So Frady opens his account, which traces King's transformation from withdrawn, unconfident child to eloquent champion of the oppressed, ever unafraid to trouble the waters. Frady explores King's conflicts, contradictions, and triumphs, as well as the great personal cost he bore in urging nonviolent change in a singularly violent time.

Part of the excellent Penguin Lives series, this slender volume sheds much light on a prophet now honored, but still too little understood. --Gregory McNamee


From Publishers Weekly
When Dr. King made the cover as Time's Man of the Year in 1963, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover "snorted in a remark passed around the Bureau, `They had to dig deep in the garbage for this one.'" It is details such as this that make this short biography of a much-written about subject both potent and illuminating. For the latest entry in the Penguin Lives series, Frady (Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson) has produced a sharp, politically insightful, emotionally astute and psychologically complex portrait of a man whose complicated life and work is often reduced to simplistic hagiography. While this biography uses a standard chronological narrative as its spine, Frady constantly reframes facts and their accepted meanings with new information that gives readers fresh, often startling interpretations, or reminds us of facts that have slipped to the periphery (Rosa Parks was not simply a woman who refused to change her seat on the bus, but an active member of the NAACP who knew the political implications of her act). Never shying away from controversial topics, such as King's deep rage against the U.S. war in Vietnam or the plagiarized portions of his writing, Frady also perceptively analyzes how King's political strategizing emerged from his often conflicted emotional needs many of his bold, decisive gains for the civil rights movement were predicated on a Clintonian need for contact and adulation, according to the author. Yet Frady's sensitive, succinct presentation never lets King's foibles obscure his tremendous contributions to American life. (Jan.)Forecast: With such titles as Edna O'Brien's James Joyce and Wayne Koestenbaum's recent Andy Warhol, the Penguin Lives series has propagated a distinctive form of biography, drawing heavily on the magazine profile form. A few readers may be starting to follow the series as a whole and will pick this up; others will find reacquaintance with King's nonviolent tactics for liberation a refreshing read in difficult times.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A veteran political journalist and biographer of George Wallace, Billy Graham, and Jesse Jackson, Frady has created a lyrical, even poetic moral pageant to portray King from his rise to national notice in the Montgomery, AL, bus boycott of 1955-56 to his 1968 murder on a motel balcony in Memphis, TN. He takes King to his triumphant moment at the 1963 March on Washington and also to his dispirited Poor People's Campaign mired on the Washington Mall in 1967. Eschewing the figure that public attention and adulation hallowed, Frady instead pursues the harrowed man, the troubled soul, the unprepossessing, unheroic King whose moral vision cast him as a Promethean protagonist in the crucible of civil rights. With deft, quick-sketch character studies, Frady tells King's life not so much through events as through personalities, adding his own reminiscences as a young reporter covering the movement. While no replacement for the works of Taylor Branch, David Garrow, or David Levering Lewis, Frady's work is an engrossing read for its literary prose, as well as for its tableau of the times and freshened perception of King as a personality. Highly recommended for collections on biography, civil rights, or U.S. history. Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Part of the Penguin Lives short biography series, Frady's work presents a concise and provocative account of the life of King. The prose is intelligent, sometimes poetic, and never boring, and Frady's deep and serious voice sounds surprisingly like that of a professional narrator. The book portrays both the triumphs (the march on Washington) and tragic flaws (reports of womanizing) of a man who is presented as confident publicly and troubled personally, though some King scholars will contest some of the stories cited by Frady. M.L.C. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Frady, a journalist and former Newsweek reporter who covered the civil rights movement during the 1960s, makes good use of that experience in this slim volume examining the life of the movement's most prominent leader. Frady also makes good use of many substantive writings on King's life to deliver a most reflective examination of King and his times. From King's initial thrust onto the national scene with the Montgomery bus boycott, in which he was at first reluctant to participate, through the political terrain of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Frady integrates well the changing civil rights turf with the symbolic significance of the youth and aggressiveness of Malcolm X and the SNCC student movement, as well as King's difficulties with those who saw his Vietnam criticism as too far out of range. Like most King biographers, Frady asserts that King's public image was a mere shadow of his inner world of personal demons and conflicts between good and evil. Frady's personal experiences with King add texture to this reflective look. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
As a young journalist in the South in the 1960s, Marshall Frady walked the hot sidewalks, sat in crowded churches and courtrooms, and interviewed prominent civil rights leaders. Now the critically acclaimed biographer joins the bestselling Penguin Lives series to profile the man whose spiritual and political leadership has gained him an indelible place in twentieth-century history. In the masterly and riveting Martin Luther King, Jr., Frady draws on his twenty-five years of award-winning commentary on American race relations to give an inspiring portrait of this amazing leader and the turbulent era in which he lived.

Martin Luther King, Jr., deftly interweaves the history of the civil rights movement with King's rise to fame and influence and includes fascinating insight into factions within the movement itself. Frady explores the complexities of King's relationship with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, J. Edgar Hoover's relentless pursuit of King's demise, and King's own anticipation of his death. Above all, Frady's spellbinding voice brings to new life the ambitious, pious son of an Atlanta Baptist minister thrust onto a national platform of moral grandeur and shows, in vividly recalled scenes, recalling how both King and his country reacted to those cataclysmic years.


About the Author
Marshall Frady, a critically acclaimed biographer and veteran journalist, is the author of Wallace, a biography of George Wallace, and most recently of Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson (a 1996 New York Times Notable Book, excerpted in The New Yorker). He has written for Nightline and for numerous publications, including Newsweek, Life, and Harper's, and been a host, chief writer, and award-winning correspondent for ABC News, where his pieces won many awards.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Penguin Lives aren't just short biographies; they are profiles with a purpose. In this case, civil rights observer Marshall Frady explores the life and character of minister-activist Martin Luther King Jr. with candor and insight. While presenting the central landmarks and pitfalls of King's life, Frady tackles questions of strategy and ethics, including recent accusations of plagiarism. He writes compellingly about the development of King's anti–Vietnam War stance and his changing views of other black leaders. Frady presents King as a politician with a spiritual mission; a gifted yet flawed man; and a major figure in our shared history.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

As a young journalist in the South in the 1960s, Marshall Frady walked the hot sidewalks, sat in crowded churches and courtrooms, and interviewed prominent civil rights leaders. Now the critically acclaimed biographer joins the bestselling Penguin Lives series to profile the man whose spiritual and political leadership has gained him an indelible place in twentieth-century history. In the masterly and riveting Martin Luther King Jr., Frady draws on his twenty-five years of award-winning commentary on American race relations to give an inspiring portrait of this amazing leader and the turbulent era in which he lived.

Martin Luther King Jr. deftly interweaves the history of the civil rights movement with King's rise to fame and influence and includes fascinating insight into factions within the movement itself. Frady explores the complexities of King's relationship with the Kennedy and johnson administrations, J. Edgar Hoover's relentless pursuit of King's demise, and King's own anticipation of his death. Above all, Frady's spellbinding voice brings to new life the ambitious, pious son of an Atlanta Baptist minister thrust onto a national platform of moral grandeur and shows, in vividly recalled scenes, recalling how both King and his country reacted to those cataclysmic years.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

When Dr. King made the cover as Time's Man of the Year in 1963, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover "snorted in a remark passed around the Bureau, 'They had to dig deep in the garbage for this one.'" It is details such as this that make this short biography of a much-written about subject both potent and illuminating. For the latest entry in the Penguin Lives series, Frady (Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson) has produced a sharp, politically insightful, emotionally astute and psychologically complex portrait of a man whose complicated life and work is often reduced to simplistic hagiography. While this biography uses a standard chronological narrative as its spine, Frady constantly reframes facts and their accepted meanings with new information that gives readers fresh, often startling interpretations, or reminds us of facts that have slipped to the periphery (Rosa Parks was not simply a woman who refused to change her seat on the bus, but an active member of the NAACP who knew the political implications of her act). Never shying away from controversial topics, such as King's deep rage against the U.S. war in Vietnam or the plagiarized portions of his writing, Frady also perceptively analyzes how King's political strategizing emerged from his often conflicted emotional needs many of his bold, decisive gains for the civil rights movement were predicated on a Clintonian need for contact and adulation, according to the author. Yet Frady's sensitive, succinct presentation never lets King's foibles obscure his tremendous contributions to American life. (Jan.) Forecast: With such titles as Edna O'Brien's James Joyce and Wayne Koestenbaum's recent Andy Warhol, the Penguin Lives series haspropagated a distinctive form of biography, drawing heavily on the magazine profile form. A few readers may be starting to follow the series as a whole and will pick this up; others will find reacquaintance with King's nonviolent tactics for liberation a refreshing read in difficult times. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A veteran political journalist and biographer of George Wallace, Billy Graham, and Jesse Jackson, Frady has created a lyrical, even poetic moral pageant to portray King from his rise to national notice in the Montgomery, AL, bus boycott of 1955-56 to his 1968 murder on a motel balcony in Memphis, TN. He takes King to his triumphant moment at the 1963 March on Washington and also to his dispirited Poor People's Campaign mired on the Washington Mall in 1967. Eschewing the figure that public attention and adulation hallowed, Frady instead pursues the harrowed man, the troubled soul, the unprepossessing, unheroic King whose moral vision cast him as a Promethean protagonist in the crucible of civil rights. With deft, quick-sketch character studies, Frady tells King's life not so much through events as through personalities, adding his own reminiscences as a young reporter covering the movement. While no replacement for the works of Taylor Branch, David Garrow, or David Levering Lewis, Frady's work is an engrossing read for its literary prose, as well as for its tableau of the times and freshened perception of King as a personality. Highly recommended for collections on biography, civil rights, or U.S. history. Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews