Keith Summey North Charleston Library's Adult Services Librarian Ramon Maclin interviews New York Times Bestselling Author Jonathan Eig on his latest book A King Life. Eig is the bestselling author of six books including his most recent one. You can place a hold for the book here.
How did you conduct the research for the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?I began with interviews – interviews with the people who knew King best, including Andrew Young, Harry Belafonte, Juanita Abernathy, and many others. While I traveled for interviews, I began reading everything I could get my hands on and searching for archived collections. I was surprised, pleasantly, that almost everyone agreed to talk to me. In some cases, perhaps because they were older, they spoke with refreshing candor. I was also surprised at how much new archival material I discovered, including Martin Luther King Sr.’s unpublished autobiography, audiotapes of Coretta Scott King, and thousands of pages collected by the SCLC’s official historian LD Reddick.
How did you approach this project different from your other literary work. My approach doesn’t change much from book to book. I try to write the most important, most powerful, most engaging book I can, based on loads of research and interviews. With this book more than others, I sought help from outsiders. I asked lots of experts, lots of scholars, lots of writers to guide me. I asked people to read chapters even in early drafts and to give me feedback. King means so much to so many people, I wanted to have a community of supporters helping me to shape the work. Of course, the final decisions were all mine, and any errors in judgment or fact are entirely my own.
What is the best way to approach a biography book? Anyone writing (and reading) biography should approach with humility. It’s impossible to know what’s in another person’s heart and mind. We do our best to try to understand – just as we do our best to understand the people close to us in our personal lives – but we do so with the knowledge that every human soul is a mystery. The attempt to connect is an act of empathy, an act of love. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It can’t be perfect.
What would you say are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about King? We’ve simplified and watered-down King’s message. We’ve forgotten he was radical. We’ve forgotten that he fought northern racism, too, that he called out systemic racism, including the racism that fuels police brutality. We’ve forgotten that he became unpopular in America for his anti-war views. We’ve forgotten he suffered – suffered doubt, suffered anxiety, suffered depression. But I think King emerges as more courageous when we accept him as human.
How should MLK be remembered? King should be remembered as one of America’s founding fathers, a person who pushed this country to fulfill the promises contained in the Declaration and Bill of Rights.
What are some of your favorite Biography books? I love all kinds of bios: the sports bios of Jane Leavy, Jeff Pearlman, and David Maraniss; the works of T.J. Stiles, David Garrow, Annette Gordon-Reed, Robin D.G. Kelley, Barbara Ransby, and Leon Edel.