Martin Luther King, Jr.

A signed first edition of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s first book.

• Martin Luther King, Jr. (American).
• New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.
• Octavo.
• 320 pages.
• First edition, first printing.
• Signed on the front pastedown. 
• Black and white images to pages 65-68 and 165-168.
• Publisher's black and blue cloth, publisher's device stamped in silver to upper cover, spine lettered in silver, in original unclipped jacket, housed in a gilt half-morocco marbled clamshell box.

A signed first edition of Dr King's first book on the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956, and the succeeding court cases. In the text, King espouses nonviolent direct action: "I came to feel that this was the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom." The month after this book was published, while signing copies at a department store in Harlem, a member of the public (convinced King was conspiring with communists against her) stabbed him with a letter opener and he was hospitalized for weeks – this did nothing to halt his nonviolent advocacy for civil rights.

The inscription, evidently obtained in person given the signature on the pastedown, reads "Best Wishes Martin L. King Jr."