Illinois Libraries Present - Bringing History to Life with Jonathan Eig

Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of six books, including his most recent, Pulitzer Prize-winning King: A Life. Vividly written and exhaustively researched, it is the first major biography in decades of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files.

In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, Eig gives us an intimate view of King, who masterfully employed peaceful protest in the streets but was rarely at peace with himself. From the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

Eig began his writing career at age 16, working for his hometown newspaper, The Rockland County Journal News (N.Y.). He studied journalism at Northwestern University, and went on to work as a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Dallas Morning News, Chicago Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.

Illinois Libraries Present (ILP) is a Member based initiative of the Illinois Library Association and a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events. Thank you to our state partners for the continuous support.

Partial funding for this season is supported by a grant, awarded by the Illinois State Library, a Department of the Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

ASL Interpreting Services are made possible by the support of Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS) and Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS).