What It’s Like to Write an MLK Jr. Biography
The Book Review16 Jun 2023

What It’s Like to Write an MLK Jr. Biography

Jonathan Eig’s book “King: A Life” is the first comprehensive biography in decades of Martin Luther King Jr., drawing on reams of interviews and newly uncovered archival materials to paint a fuller picture of the civil rights leader than we have received before. On this week’s podcast, Eig describes the process of researching and writing the book, and tells the host Gilbert Cruz how he tracked down resources that were unavailable to earlier biographers.

“I was a newspaper reporter for a long, long time — and you know, working on daily stories, if you got five days to work on a story, it was a luxury. Now I’ve got five, six years to work on a story, and I take full advantage of that," Eig says. "It took me two years to find, even though I knew it was out there, this unpublished autobiography that Martin Luther King’s father wrote. Nobody had ever quoted from it. ... Stuff like that just gets me really, really pumped up.”

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(590)

The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 Years Later

The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 Years Later

On Nov. 10, 1975, during a calamitous storm, the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk below the waves of Lake Superior. All 29 men aboard went down with the vessel. With no survivors and no eyewitnesses, there’s al...

7 Nov 202539min

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter'

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter'

“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,” by Stephen Graham Jones, is two things at once: a searching historical novel that examines America’s past sins and also a gory horror thriller.The book opens in 2012, when...

31 Okt 202545min

Joe Hill's Scary Book Recs and Victor LaValle on "The Haunting of Hill House" (Rerun)

Joe Hill's Scary Book Recs and Victor LaValle on "The Haunting of Hill House" (Rerun)

May October never end! As Halloween approaches, we present you with two conversations from years past with great horror authors. Joe Hill, whose latest, "King Sorrow," is out now, recommends several g...

24 Okt 202547min

Stephen King Isn't Always Scary (with Sean Fennessey)

Stephen King Isn't Always Scary (with Sean Fennessey)

It's October, which means it's time for scary books and scary movies. There's one person who is well known for both: Stephen King. Since his first novel, "Carrie," was published in 1974 and adapted in...

17 Okt 202553min

Brandon Taylor On His New Novel, 'Minor Black Figures'

Brandon Taylor On His New Novel, 'Minor Black Figures'

The novelist Brandon Taylor has been a force to reckon with right from the start: His debut, “Real Life,” was a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2020, and he quickly followed that up with two other bo...

10 Okt 202540min

The Sunday Special: The Books We Read in School

The Sunday Special: The Books We Read in School

This week, the Book Review podcast presents an episode of The Sunday Special from early September.Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz talks with fellow word lover Sadie Stein and the author Louis Sachar (...

3 Okt 202539min

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Pride and Prejudice'

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Pride and Prejudice'

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”So opens Jane Austen’s Regency-era romantic comedy “Pride and Prejudice,” which fo...

26 Sep 20251h 5min

Mary Roach Loves Writing About Weird Science

Mary Roach Loves Writing About Weird Science

The best-selling science journalist Mary Roach has written about sex and death and the digestive system — basically, all of the topics that children are taught to avoid in polite company. In her lates...

19 Sep 202537min

Populært innen Fritid

rss-spartsklubben
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
mil-etter-mil-en-podcast-om-bil
nerdelandslaget
interiorradet
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
rss-gatebilpodden
jegerpodden
jakt-og-fiskepodden
rss-jeg-fikser-vin
0-100-med-broom-mats-og-remi
rss-jegerpodden
level-backup
klokkepodden
rss-avskiltet
villmarksliv
grontpodden
hagespiren-podcast
rss-scooch-pod
fjellsportpodden