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Melville

House Publis

hing

LIBF 2017 – RIGHTS GUIDE

Melville House Publishing

LIBF 2017 – RIGHTS GUIDE

FICTION

UNDERGROUND FUGUE 4

THE TALENTED RIBKINS 5

LACKING CHARACTER 6

THE BOOK OF FORMATION 6

THE MIRROR THIEF 7

NOT ON FIRE, BUT BURNING 8

RULES FOR WEREWOLVES 9

NON-FICTION

WHY I AM NOT A FEMINIST 11

THE DESTRUCTION OF HILLARY CLINTON 12

BECOMING LEONARDO 13

EUROVISION! 14

CULTURE AS WEAPON 15

THE MAN WHO DESIGNED THE FUTURE 16

ERNESTO 17

DIRTY WARS AND POLISHED SILVER 18

BROLLIOLOGY 19

ENGLISH UPRISING 20

‘CAUSE 21

MACHINES OF THE MIND 22

VIKING ECONOMICS 23

THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP 24

THE LAST INTERVIEW

DAVID BOWIE 26

OLIVER SACKS 27

J.D. SALINGER 28

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. 29

FICTIONFICTION

ON SALE APR 2017

Hardcover, 336 pages, 6 x 9 in.Fiction

RIGHTS AVAILABLEForeign LanguageAudioPerformance

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margot Singer won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction, the Glasgow Prize for Emerg-ing Writers, and an Honorable Men-tion for the PEN/Hemingway Award for her story collection, The Pale of Settlement. Her work has been fea-tured on NPR and in the Kenyon Re-view, the Gettysburg Review, Agni, and Conjunctions, among other publica-tions. She is a professor of English at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

UNDERGROUND FUGUEMARGOT SINGER

“A pleasure to read from beginning to end.”—Geraldine Brooks

It’s April and Esther has fled New York for London, partly to escape her failing marriage, and partly to care for her dying mother, Lonia. Their lives soon become entwined with their next-door neighbors: Javad, an Iranian neuroscientist, and his college-aged son, Amir, who is drawn to the illicit exploration of the city’s forbidden spaces.

As Esther settles into life in London, a friendship develops with Javad. But when terrorists attack the London transit sys-tem in July, the chaos that follows both fractures possibilities for the future, and reveals the deep fault lines of the past.

With both nuanced clarity and breathtaking grandeur, Mar-got Singer’s Underground Fugue is an elegant, suspenseful, and deeply powerful debut.

PRAISE FOR UNDERGROUND FUGUE

“In this extraordinarily accomplished debut novel, Margot Singer confronts life’s essential losses...The book’s tender, questing spirit imbues even these dark recesses with a kind of luminosity…a pleasure to read from beginning to end.” —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March

“A beautiful novel about affinities, assumptions, and family mysteries.” —Allegra Goodman, bestselling author of Intuition

For more information on this or any other Melville House title, please email [email protected]

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ON SALE AUG 2017

Hardcover, 304 pages, 5.5 x 8.25 in.Fiction

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign LanguageAudio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ladee Hubbard received a BA in Eng-lish from Princeton University where she studied with Toni Morrison. She complet-ed an MFA in Dramatic Writing at New York University and a PhD in Folklore and Mythology at UCLA. Hubbard is the win-ner of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, the Faulkner-Wisdom Short Story Award, and taken third place in the Lo-rian Hemingway Short Story Award and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

THE TALENTED RIBKINSLADEE HUBBARD

2016 winner of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award

This marvelously inventive novel tells the story of Johnny Rib-kins, a 72-year old African-American antiques dealer from Florida who was born with a unique talent.

A compulsively readable, big-hearted story about a family with special gifts who sometimes stumble in their efforts to succeed in life, The Talented Ribkins draws on such novels as Toni Morrison’s Sula and Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist to weave themes of race, class and politics into a wonderfully accomplished and engaging novel by a talented new author.


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ON SALE FEB 2018Paperback

RIGHTS AVAILABLEForeign LanguageAudio

ABOUT THE AUTHORCURTIS WHITE is a founder of The Fic-tion Collective 2. His latest books are We, Robots and The Science Delusion. His nov-els include Memories of My Father Watch-ing TV and Monstrous Possibility.

LACKING CHARACTERCURTIS WHITE

The man Paul Auster called “A master of bewitchments” makes his long-awaited

return to the novel after 20 years

In the spirit of “transcendent buffoonery” Curtis White’s mi-raculous return to fiction is fun in the extreme. When a masked man arrives in N---, Illinois bearing a letter and claiming its contents a matter of life or death, the small town–and the fab-ric of reality–will never be the same.

PRAISE FOR CURTIS WHITE

“Absolutely indispensable.” —Slavoj Žižek

“Splendidly cranky.” —Molly Ivins

“A master of bewitchments, parodies, and dazzling tropes.” —Paul Auster

“Cogent, acute, beautiful, and true.” —David Foster Wallace


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ON SALE NOV 2017Paperback

RIGHTS AVAILABLEForeign LanguageAudio

ABOUT THE AUTHORROSS SIMONINI is the interviews editor at the Believer magazine and is a founder and producer of the McSweeney’s radio show, the Organist, on KCRW. His writ-ings and interviews regularly appear in Interview, The New York Times, Art in America, Kaleidoscope, and Frieze.

THE BOOK OF FORMATIONROSS SIMONINI

This novel in interviews spans 20 years in the rise and fall of the charismatic lead-

er of a seductive self-help movement.

The narrator of this heady novel is a journalist fascinated by the interior life of Masha Isle, the adopted son of TV personal-ity Mayah Isle whose reality show promises to change guests’ personalities by manipulating “p” (or, the energy of expression that focuses into mannerisms/personalities). Their conversa-tions cover 20 years and track Masha as he changes from a frustrated and angry boy into an influential cultural figure who takes over his mother’s show.

The narrator at first sees personality manipulation (PM) as a fad or cult, but becomes obsessed with Masha/Marshal and credits PM with alleviating his own chronic illness. But all of that is thrown into question when tragedy strikes.

A stunning debut and a speculative look at the culture of self-improvement, this novel-in-interviews follows the rise and fall of a controversial figure we can all recognize.

ON SALE NOW

Paperback - 592 pp - 5.5 x 8.25 inFiction

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign Language

RIGHTS SOLD

Russian (Azbooka-Atticus)Polish (Wydawnictowo Czarna Owcas)Romanian (Editura Trei)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MARTIN SEAY is the executive secretary for the village of Wheeling, Illinois. This is his first novel.

THE MIRROR THIEFMARTIN SEAY

“The book I was raving about to my friends before I’d even finished it.”

—The New York Times Book Review

Imagine Venice in the sixteenth century, when the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world’s most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination, the Venetian mirrors were state of the art technology, and subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide.

But for any of the development team to leave the island was a crime punishable by death. One man, however—a world-wea-ry war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city’s terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . .

Meanwhile, in two other Venices, in two other times, two oth-er schemers launch similarly dangerous plans of their own…

PRAISE FOR THE MIRROR THIEF

“[A] wondrous debut.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A startling, beautiful gem of a book.” —NPR

“Sure to please fans of David Mitchell and Umberto Eco.” —B&N Review

“A transporting and original novel.” —BookBrowse

“The Mirror Thief establishes Seay as an impressive new voice to watch.” —Buzzfeed

“Masterful and mysterious.” —Las Vegas Weekly

A literary, speculative, mystical masterwork.”—Chicago Review of Books

“A splendid masterpiece...an epic with near-universal appeal.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Shimmering with intimations of Hermann Hesse, Umberto Eco, and David Mitchell.” —Booklist, starred review

“Hugely entertaining.” —The Daily Mail


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ON SALE NOW

Paperback - 272 pp - 5.75 x 8.5 in.Fiction

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign LanguageAudioPerformance

RIGHTS SOLD

French (Libella)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GREG HRBEK won the James Jones First Novel award for his book The Hindenberg Crashes Nightly. His short fiction has ap-peared in Harper’s Magazine and numer-ous literary journals, and in The Best American Short Stories anthology. He is writer in residence at Skidmore College.

NOT ON FIRE, BUT BURNINGGREG HRBEK

“An impressive achievement”—The New York Times

Skyler saw the incident out her window: A metallic object hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge just before it collapsed and a mushroom cloud lifted above the city. Like everyone, she ran, but she couldn’t outrun the radiation, with her last thoughts being of her beloved baby brother, Dorian, safe in her distant family home.

Flash forward to a post-incident America. The country has been broken up into territories and Muslims have been herded onto the old Indian reservations in the west, even though no one has determined who set off the explosion that destroyed San Francisco. Twelve-year old Dorian dreams about killing Muslims and about his sister—even though Dorian’s parents insist Skyler never existed.

Meanwhile, Dorian’s neighbor adopts a Muslim orphan from the territories, setting off a series of increasingly terrifying incidents that will lead to either tragedy or redemption for Dorian.

PRAISE FOR NOT ON FIRE, BUT

BURNING

“Hrbek’s prose is sharp and trenchant, his voice remarkably complex yet assured…an impressive achievement.”

—The New York Times

“[Hrbek’s] engagement with themes of loss and recovery and his vibrantly lyrical prose style reach a peak.”

—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Profound…A vivid and often deeply unnerving reminder that our choices carry real and lasting consequences.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Masterful…a shining example of post-9/11, pre-next-disaster storytelling.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“Operates simultaneously as apocalyptic alarmism, brain-bending quantum fiction, character-driven drama and grip-ping mystery.” —NPR

“Troubling and beautiful, bold and compelling, a brainy, heartfelt page-turner.” —Elizabeth McCracken


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ON SALE NOW

Paperback - 352 pp - 6 x 9 inFiction - Black Humor - Dystopian - Literary

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign Language

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KIRK LYNN is an artistic director of the Rude Mechs theater collective. He is the head of the Playwriting and Directing at the University of Texas at Austin. Lynn lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, the poet Carrie Fountain, and their children.

RULES FOR WEREWOLVESKIRK LYNN

“Brilliant.”—James Magnuson, author of Famous Writers I Have Known

It’s the story of a restless group of young squatters. They’ve run away from their families and their pasts, roaming the half-empty suburbs of America, occupying the empty houses of the foreclosed or vacationing, never staying in one place long enough to attract attention, while shoplifting beer at the local Speedy Stop. They’re building a new society with new laws, and no one will stand in their way.

But utopias are hard work, and as Rules for Werewolves un-folds, these young rebels discover that it’s much easier to break laws than to enforce them. Narrated in the shifting perspec-tives of the pack, Rules for Werewolves follows a community of drifters on the move, who seek a life in a wilderness that, by definition, has no room for them, and a freedom for which they may not be entirely prepared.

PRAISE FOR RULES FOR WEREWOLVES

“One of the first post-recession, post–housing crisis American novels of truly alienated youth and suburban fear.”


“An offbeat glimpse into how resistance to conformity breeds its own kind of conformity.” —Kirkus Reviews

“You get caught up with these people. You take sides. And then Kirk Lynn confounds your expectations at every turn.”

—Greil Marcus

“Brilliant. It’s quirky, innovative, hilarious and menacing…A true high-wire act.” —James Magnuson, author of Famous Writers I Have Known

“Funny, dark, weird and addictive . . . A unique, engaging way to tell a story and a fresh way of looking at American culture, youth and class.”

—LitHub, The Great Booksellers Fall Preview


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NON-FICTIONNON-FICTION

ON SALE NOW

Trade Paperback - 176 pages - 5.5 x 8.2Feminism - Women’s Studies - Pop Culture

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign Translation

RIGHTS SOLD

Australian (Black Inc.)Italian (Edizioni SUR)Swedish (Bokforlaget Diadalos)Spanish (Los Libros del Lince)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JESSA CRISPIN is the founder of the on-line magazines Bookslut and the on-line literary journal Spolia. She is the author of The Dead Ladies Project and The Cre-ative Tarot, and has written for the New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Sun-Times, and Architect Magazine, among others. She has lived in Lincoln, Kansas; Austin, Texas; Dublin, Ireland; Chicago, Illinois; Berlin, German, and elsewhere.

WHY I AM NOT A FEMINISTA FEMINIST MANIFESTO

JESSA CRISPIN

“Bracing…a rare counterbalance.”–The New York Times

Are you a feminist? Do you believe women are human beings and that they deserve to be treated as such? That women de-serve all the same rights and liberties bestowed upon men? If so, then you are a feminist . . . or so the feminists keep insist-ing.

But somewhere along the way, the movement for female lib-eration sacrificed meaning for acceptance, and left us with a banal, polite, ineffectual pose that barely challenges the status quo. In this bracing, fiercely intelligent manifesto, Jessa Crisp-in demands more.

Why I Am Not A Feminist is a radical, fearless call for revolu-tion. It accuses the feminist movement of obliviousness, irrel-evance, and cowardice—and demands nothing less than the total dismantling of a system of oppression.

PRAISE FOR WHY I AM NOT A FEMINIST

“Crispin’s argument is bracing, and a rare counterbalance; where feminism is concerned, broad acceptability is almost always framed as an unquestioned good.” —The New Yorker

“Calls for a reinvestment in radical, even revolutionary think-ing about what feminism can mean, and do.” —Elle

“The author’s ferocious critique effectively reframes the terms of any serious discussion of feminism…Forget busting glass ceilings. Crispin has taken a wrecking ball to the whole struc-ture.” —Kirkus, starred review

“Feminists have, in fact, become polite insiders, and Crispin is here to show them how to punch their way out. A rallying manifesto; start swinging.” —Library Journal

“Laser-like insight into feminism’s strengths and weaknesses...Rhetoric that soars and sears...Crispin rallies the kind of radi-cal verve that once vitalized a revolution in the hope that it will do so once again.” —Booklist


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ON SALE APRIL 2017

Hardcover - 272 pages - 6 x 9 in.Campaigns & Elections - Biography & Autobiography - Women’s Studies

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign LanguageAudio

RIGHTS SOLD

Australia/New Zealand (Text)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SUSAN BORDO is a media critic, cultural historian, and feminist scholar. Her books include Unbearable Weight, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and, most recently, The Creation of Anne Boleyn. She is Professor of Gender and Women’s Stud-ies at the University of Kentucky.

THE DESTRUCTION OF HILLARY CLINTONSUSAN BORDO

A play-by-play of the political forces and media culture that vilified and ultimately

brought down Hillary Clinton during her 2016 Presidential campaign

The Destruction of Hillary Clinton is an answer to the ques-tion many have been asking: How did an extraordinarily well-qualified, experienced, and admired candidate—whose vic-tory would have been as historic as Barack Obama’s—come to be seen as a tool of the establishment, a chronic liar, and a talentless politician?

In this masterful narrative of the 2016 campaign year and the events that led up to it, Susan Bordo unpacks the rights’ as-sault on Clinton and her reputation, the way the left provoked suspicion and indifference among the youth vote, and the un-precedented influence of the media.

Urgent, insightful, and engrossing, The Destruction of Hillary Clinton is an essential guide to understanding the most con-troversial presidential election in American history.

PRAISE FOR SUSAN BORDO AND

UNBEARABLE WEIGHT

“Brilliant…Bordo analyzes a whole range of issues connected to the body…in a way that makes sense of our current social landscape—finally!” —Katha Pollitt, author of Subject to Debate

“Brilliant, scholarly yet accessible” —Publisher’s Weekly

“Dense, challenging, subtly argued… A cerebral introduction to liberal feminist thinking that’s humanized by the author’s anecdotes of her own experience.” —Kirkus Reviews


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ON SALE NOW

Hardcover - 304 pp - 5.75 x 8.5 in.Biography - Renaissance Art - History

RIGHTS AVAILABLE


RIGHTS SOLD

Turkish (Nemesis Kitap)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MIKE LANKFORD is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and the author of Life in Double Time: Confessions of an American Drummer, a memoir about his years as a white drummer in a black R&B band.

BECOMING LEONARDOAN EXPLODED VIEW OF THE LIFE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI

MIKE LANKFORD“Fun and enlightening.”

—Publisher’s Weekly

Why did Leonardo Da Vinci leave so many of his major works uncompleted? Why did this resolute pacifist build war machines for the Borgias? Why did he carry the Mona Lisa with him ev-erywhere for decades, yet never quite finish it? Why did he write backwards, and was he really at war with Michelangelo? And was he gay?

In a book unlike anything ever written about the Renaissance genius, Mike Lankford explodes every cliché about Da Vinci and then reconstructs him based on a rich trove of available evidence—bringing to life for the modern reader the man who has been studied by scholars for centuries, yet has remained as mysterious as ever.

Lankford brilliantly captures Da Vinci’s life as the compelling adventure it seems to have been—fleeing from one sanctuary to the next, somehow surviving in war zones beside his friend Machiavelli, struggling to make art his way or no way at all…and often paying dearly for those decisions.

It is a thrilling journey into the life of a ferociously dedicated loner, whose artwork represents his noble rebellion, providing inspiration that is timeless.

PRAISE FOR BECOMING LEONARDO

“A fun and enlightening exercise in imagination…Lankford’s unconventional approach provides for a deeper appreciation of a genius.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“A compelling tour d’horizon of Leonardo’s life and work, us-ing the known facts as jumping-off points for tantalizing (but still level-headed) speculations and reconstructions…one of the most intimate and clear-sighted portraits we’re likely to have of such an elusive artist.”

—Ross King, author of Brunelleschi’s Dome

“Does what historians long to do, and novelists often struggle to achieve. A book that has the pace, elegance, and authorial omnipresence of a novel, but which will enlighten, rather than annoy, the astute historian.”—Noah Charney, best-selling author of The Art of Forgery


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ON SALE APR 2017

Paperback - 356pp - 19.8 x 12.7 cmRock & pop music - European history - Social & cultural history - TV & society

RIGHTS AVAILABLE


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHRIS WEST is an author, ghostwriter and marketer. His books include Jour-ney to the Middle Kingdom, The Beermat Entrepreneur and First Class: a History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and daughter.

EUROVISION!A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE THROUGH THE WORLD’S GREATEST SONG CONTEST

CHRIS WEST

Do you think the world of the Eurovision Song Contest, with its crazy props, even crazier dancers and crazier still songs has nothing to do with serious European politics? Think again. The contest has been a mirror for cultural, social and political developments in Europe ever since its inauguration, when an audience in dinner jackets and ball-gowns politely applauded each song. It has been a voice of rebellion across the Iron Cur-tain, an inspiration for new European nations in the 1990s and 2000s, the voice of liberation for both sexual and regional mi-norities. It even once triggered a national revolution.

Eurovision! charts both the history of Europe and the history of the Eurovision Song Contest over the last six decades, and shows how seamlessly they interlink – and what an amazing journey it has been.

PRAISE FOR EUROVISION!

“Chris West’s book brings the colourful history of Europe to life through the prism of the even more colourful Eurovision Song Contest.” —Katrina Leskanich, Katrina & The Waves

“It’s a toss-up which will be first: England winning the World Cup again, or the UK winning Eurovision again. While you’re waiting, this book is the perfect companion.” —Tim Rice

“This book definitely gets douze points from me.” —Mel Giedroyc

“I’ve always thought Eurovision was just a joke, but Chris West shows how it has always been a mirror of cultural and political change.” —Robert Tombs, Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge

“For Europhiles, Europhobes and the Euro-cautious alike: witty, informed and insightful.” —Alison Light, author of Common People

“A highly entertaining history of modern Europe through the prism of Eurovision” —Nicola Clase, presenter of The Swedish Ambassador’s Guide to Eurovision

“All of human genius, and our capacity for screwing up, are here, told with wit, wisdom and humanity.” —Sir Stephen Wall, British Permanent Representative to the EU 1995- 2000


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ON SALE NOW

Hardcover - 288 pages - 5.5 x 8.25 inAnthropology - Politics - Advertisining - Art

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign LanguagePerformanceAudio

RIGHTS SOLD

Korean (FlatB)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NATO THOMPSON is chief cura-tor at Creative Time, one of New York’s most prestigious and excit-ing art organizations. He is the au-thor of Seeing Power (Melville House).

CULTURE AS WEAPONTHE ART OF INFLUENCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE

NATO THOMPSON

“Brilliant and scathing.” —Laura Poitras, filmmaker, Citizenfour

In an era when real-estate developers preach the power of art to change society, and when innovative capitalist design has come to be called art one has to appreciate–and have a healthy suspi-cion of–just how far art has come.

Activist, curator, and critic Nato Thompson guides us through today’s complex and all-consuminig culture wars–a constant battle for our hearts and minds through relentless appeals to our emotional selves. He connects the innovative public-relations strategies of the mid-twentieth-century to modern phenomena as diverse as counterinsurgency tactics in the Middle East, charitable giving, public art, social networking, and the seductive layouts of Starbucks, IKEA, and Apple stores.

An eye-opening account of the way adveritising, media, art, and politics surround and compel us, Culture as Weapon offers a crucial contribution to the study of the forces othat have made culture into big business–and thereby, no matter the ideology, everyone’s business.

PRAISE FOR CULTURE AS WEAPON

“Energetic, briskly paced, and well-researched…[Thompson] succeeds in raising awareness of the cultural forces that shape brand preferences and political allegiance.”


“A precisely written critique of cultural manipulation in our daily lives.” —Kirkus Reviews

“When it comes to living in a democracy, Nato Thompson argues, nothing affects us more directly and more powerfully than culture.” —The Atlantic

“A brilliant and scathing take no prisoners critique of contem-porary culture…Nato Thompson shows us the dark side of how culture is deployed to fortify power.” —Laura Poitras,

Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Citizenfour

“Read it and discover exactly how mistaken is our assumption that human creativity brings us always closer to some earthly utopia.”

—Thomas Frank, author of What’s The Matter With Kansas?


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ON SALE APR 2017

Hardcover - 416 pp - 6 x 9 in.Biography & Autobiography - 20th Cen-tury History - Technology & Engineering

RIGHTS AVAILABLE


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

B. ALEXANDRA SZERLIP was a two-time National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellow, a Yaddo fellow, and run-ner-up for London’s Lothian Prize for a first biography-in-progress. She has con-tributed to The Paris Review Daily and The Believer, among other publications, and has worked in professional theater, as a book editor, sculptor and graphic de-signer. Raised on the East Coast, she lives in San Francisco.

THE MAN WHO DESIGNED THE FUTURENORMAN BEL GEDDES AND THE INVENTION OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA

B. ALEXANDRA SZERLIP

Before there was Steve Jobs, there was Norman Bel Geddes.

A ninth-grade dropout who found himself at the center of the worlds of industry, advertising, theater, and even gaming, Bel Geddes designed everything from the first all-weather sta-dium, to Manhattan’s most exclusive nightclub, to Futurama, the prescient 1939 exhibit that envisioned how America would look in the not-too-distant 1960s.

In The Man Who Designed the Future, B. Alexandra Szerlip reveals precisely how central Bel Geddes was to the history of American innovation. He presided over a moment in which theater became immersive, function merged with form, and people became consumers.

Light on its feet but absolutely authoritative, this first major bi-ography is a must for anyone who wants to know how America came to look the way it did.

PRAISE FOR THE MAN WHO DESIGNED THE FUTURE

“Set designer, automobile stylist, architect, founding father of American industrial design, inventor of genius, Norman Bel Geddes was volcanically talented and sui generis. In her lively and scrupulously well-researched biography, B. Alexandra Sz-erlip gives him a deserved place as a key visionary of moder-nity.” —Nikil Saval, author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace

“I learned a lot about Norman Bel Geddes from B. Alexandra Szerlip’s book. He was a complex, controversial genius, worthy of this biography. ” —Don Norman, bestselling author of The Design of Everyday Things

“What a riveting story—of a gloriously giddy time when one man could revolutionize the way everything, from Broadway to kitchen scales, looks and works! Thank you, Ms. Szerlip, for the vivacious restoration!” —John Guare, playwright, Six Degrees of Separation


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ON SALE JULY 2017

Hardcover - 384 pp - 6 x 9 inLiterary Biography - Literary Criticism - Caribbean & Latin American History

RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Foreign LanguagesAudio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANDREW FELDMAN holds a doctoral degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Paris IV, La Sorbonne. He spent the last two years conducting research on Hemingway in residence at the Finca Vigia Museum in Havana. He was the first North American scholar to be granted unprecedented access to Hemingway’s papers there. He lives with his wife in New Orleans, Louisiana where he teaches at Tulane University.

ERNESTOTHE UNTOLD STORY OF HEMINGWAY IN REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

ANDREW FELDMAN

Ernest Hemingway first visited Cuba in 1928, and the expe-rience would change the course of his entire life. He settled in Cojimar–a tiny fishing village east of Havana–in 1940, and came to think of himself as Cuban. What he discovered there, a new world counterpart to his beloved Spain, provided him the material for the novel that would rescue his uncertain ca-reer. The Old Man and the Sea won him a Pulitzer Prize and, one year later, resulted in the achievement of literature’s high-est honor–the Nobel Prize. Recognizing his debt, Hemingway announced to the press that he had won the prize “as a citizen of Cojimar.”

Andrew Feldman here uses his unprecedented access to newly available archives to tell the full story of Hemingway’s Cuban-ness: his friendships with Cojimar fishermen, his adoptive Cu-ban family, the strong influences on his work by Cuban writ-ers, his connections to Cuban political figures and celebrities.

In doing so, Feldman changes our understanding of our most influential literary figure. Far from being a post-success, pre-suicide exile, Hemingway’s decades in Cuba were the richest of his life, and came to define the man who would become a legend.


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ON SALE JULY 2017

Hardcover - 320 pp - 6 x 9 in.Memoirs - Journalists - Social Science - Developing Countries

RIGHTS AVAILABLE


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LYNDA SCHUSTER has reported from Dallas, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Hondu-ras, Guatamala, Beirut, the Persian Gulf, Israel, and Egypt as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. In the 1980’s she lived in Malawi, where her husband held a diplomatic post. Her writing has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Granta, Utne Reader, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine, among oth-ers. She is the author of A Burning Hunger: One Family’s Struggle Against Apartheid, and currently lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and daughter.

DIRTY WARS AND POLISHED SILVERTHE LIFE AND TIMES OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT TURNED ABASSATRIX

LYNDA SCHUSTER

“I’m happy to report that adventure I found, be-yond my wildest imaginings…But there were other things lurking…that I did not foresee. Most of all, there was war.”

Lynda Schuster’s Dirty Wars and Polished Silver is a riveting memoir of a life lived on the frontlines of conflict. From a kib-butz in Israel, to Central America where her first husband was murdered, to war-ravaged Beirut, to “Ambassatrix School,” to South Africa during apartheid, Schuster’s gripping narrative takes the reader on a journey through her time as a war cor-respondent and her education as the wife of an Ambassador.

Along the way, Schuster documents her globe-trotting adven-tures in places like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Israel, Egypt, Argentina, Malawi, Mozambique, and Peru, pulling back the curtain to reveal how bravery and glamour are only half the story when it comes to foreign reporting. And, for per-haps the first time, she explains the couture clothing, baronial mansions, elegant parties, and rigid protocol of the State De-partment world from the perspective of a trailing spouse.

A story of rebellion, escape, self-discovery, and survival, told with uncommon good humor and narrative verve, Dirty Wars and Polished Silver is the sentimental education of a woman of the world.

PRAISE FOR LYNDA SCHUSTER AND A BURNING HUNGER

“A book that is as fascinating as the best novels.”— Mario Vargas Llosa

“A major contribution to the history of the struggle era.”— Business Day

“A vital reminder of one of the most intense political struggles in liv-ing memory. It’s fascinating, triumphant and ultimately very sad.”

— Time Out

“[Schuster] has given us a remarkable sense…of late apartheid era South Africa and its exiles.”

— International Journal of African Historical Studies


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ON SALE NOV 2017

Hardcover - 156 pp - 5.25 x 7.4 inLiterary Criticism - History - Humor

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MARION RANKINE is a London-based writer and bookseller. Her work has ap-peared in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, Overland and For Books’ Sake, amongst others.

BROLLIOLOGYA HISTORY OF THE UMBRELLA IN LIFE AND LITERATURE

MARION RANKINE

A fun, illustrated history of the umbrella’s surprising place in life and literature

Humans have been making, using, perfecting, and decorat-ing umbrellas for millennia—holding them over the heads of rulers, signalling class distinctions, and exploring their full imaginative potential in folk tales and novels. In Brolliology, Marion Rankine examines the curious history of the umbrella and its rich symbolic meaning.

Some of the topics covered:

• The umbrella’s social standing throughout history

• The many uses of the umbrella, both symbolic and practi-cal

• The gendered significance of the umbrella

• The umbrella’s connection to the idea and philosophy of the Self

• Fantastical uses of the umbrella in film and literature

With wit, charm and rigorous scholarship, Rankine explores the umbrella’s development through the centuries, and finds important umbrellas in classic and contemporary literature from Charles Dickens to Harry Potter.

Beautifully illustrated with four color throughout Brolliology is a unique and edifying look at the lowly umbrella.


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ON SALE NOV 2017

Paperback - 224 pp - History - Politics - Society & Culture

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAUL STOCKER has a doctorate in British far-right history at Teesside Uni-versity. Based in the Centre for Fascist, Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies, he has published research on the history of far-right and fascist movements in Britain from the 1920s until the 1960s. He lives in London and this is his first book.

ENGLISH UPRISINGBREXIT AND THE MAINSTREAMING OF THE FAR-RIGHT

PAUL STOCKER

On the morning of Friday 24 June, the United Kingdom en-tered a new political era. Britons awoke to the news that 52% of the country had voted to leave the European Union. ‘Brexit’ reflected perhaps the biggest vote of no confidence in the polit-ical establishment in modern British history. Despite the vote leading to shock and dismay across the globe, this backlash against the political elite had been decades in the making. But how did we get here?

Britain’s vote to leave the EU cannot be detached from its social, economic and political context. The past two decades have seen a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment that was once on the fringes. Conspiracy theories which scapegoat immi-grant communities, have become increasingly commonplace in print media. Ultimately, ‘mainstreaming’ this racism has combined with populism—a growing sense that the political elite does not understand or represent the needs of ordinary Britons—and culminated in Brexit.

In his timely and important book, Paul Stocker examines how ideas of the far right–always a fringe movement in Britain–have become part of the cultural and political mainstream, especially via a noxious right-wing press, and how these is-sues are not unique to Britain. Rather, the growth of far-right populism is a Western phenomenon, one that can be seen in several European countries, as well as the United States.


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ON SALE JAN 2018

HardcoverSocial Science - Psychology - Discrimina-tion & Race Relations

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Foreign LanguagesAudioPerformance

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GREGORY SMITHSIMON is associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn Col-lege, City University of New York, and the City University Graduate Center. He is the author of September 12: Community and Neighborhood Recovery at Ground Zero and co-author, with Benjamin Shepard, of The Beach Beneath the Streets: Exclusion, Control, and Play in Public Space. He is an editor of the new online journal Met-ropolitics, and has written for the Village Voice, Dissent, and In These Times, and the Daily News. He lives in Brooklyn.

‘CAUSEUNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD FOR BETTER EFFECT

GREGORY SMITHSIMON

‘Cause uses sociology’s tools to answer key questions we face today: Will it matter if America is majority nonwhite in twenty years? Why do whole neighborhoods collectively heed or ig-nore hurricane warnings? It also tackles some more fun ones, such as, what do zip codes predict about movie preferences?

Divided into three sections, the book examines how and why humans tell stories; the unseen influences that we overlook when telling these stories; and how a smarter story of causal-ity could greatly enhance how we understand ourselves and each other.

Mixing philosophy, the science of perception, and deeply re-searched social factors, ‘Cause offers nothing short of a new way of looking at our world.

PRAISE FOR GREGORY SMITHSIMON

AND SEPTEMBER 12

“An outstanding ethnography of the micro-politics of daily life.” —ROBERT BEAUREGARD, author of

When America Became Suburban

“A very successful academic micro-study of one community’s response to our nation’s greatest shock.” —Library Journal

“A rich ethnographic account.”—Japonica Brown-Saracino,

American Journal of Sociology

“Scientifically exacting…A well-illustrated, critical, yet sym-pathetic study of privilege and catastrophe that ultimately cel-ebrates the vitality and diversity of a great city.” —Booklist

“A fascinating book...[which] observes community life...through the prism of the months following 9/11.”

—Matthew Fenton,Broadsheet

“A valuable study of economic privilege and spatial exclusion in the shadow of the Twin Towers and the heart of America’s biggest city.” —Sharon Zukin,author of Naked City


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ON SALE FEB 2018

Hardcover - 400 pp - 6 x 9 in.Biography & Autobiography - Science & Technology - History

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Foreign LanguagesAudio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAMES ESSINGER is a writer, historian, and publisher. His most recent non-fiction books are Ada’s Algorithm (with Melville House) and Spellbound.

MACHINES OF THE MINDA LIFE OF CHARLES BABBAGE

JAMES ESSINGER

Machines of the Mind is the first biography of the “father of the computer” in nearly 20 years. Charles Babbage was a visionary inventor, mathematician, engineer, and philosopher and the center of the Victorian London social world.

A fascinating narrative of the extraordinary mind behind the computer as we know it, this is also the first book to fully ex-plore the iconic inventor’s work in the context of its brave mo-ment of speculative technology—very much the roots of Sili-con Valley.

PRAISE FOR JAMES ESSINGER AND ADA’S ALGORITHM

“[An] engrossing biography.”—New York Times Book Review

“A tantalizing topic…The story of a society proceeding irrevo-cably but ambivalently into the modern age.”

—Wall Street Journal

“Essinger is a terrific storyteller, and he knows a great story when he sees it.” —American Scientist

“Entertaining and illuminating.”—Times Literary Supplement (UK)

“Essinger displays not only verve and affection…but also great scholarship.” —Times Educational Supplement (UK)

“[Essinger] presents Ada’s story with great enthusiasm and rich detail…A robust, engaging and exciting biography.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Absorbing...undergirded by academic research, but it is the author’s prose, both graceful and confident, that will draw in a general readership.” —Publishers Weekly


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ON SALE NOW

Trade Paperback - 320 pp - 5.5 x 8.5 inGovernment & Business - Public Policy - Social Services & Welfare

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RIGHTS SOLD

Simplified Chinese (Heliopolis Culture Group)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GEORGE LAKEY is Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College. He is the author of many books and articles and has writ-ten for Waging Nonviolence and Common Dreams, among other publications.

VIKING ECONOMICSHOW THE SCANDINAVIANS GOT IT RIGHT-AND HOW WE CAN, TOO

GEORGE LAKEY

“Completely fascinating.”—Bill McKibben

All around the world, the left invokes Scandinavia as a prom-ised land of equality, while most conservatives fear it as a hot-bed of liberty-threatening socialism. But the left and right can usually agree on one thing: that the Nordic system is impos-sible to replicate elsewhere. The US and UK are too big, or too individualistic, or too . . . something.

In Viking Economics—perhaps the most fun economics book you’ve ever read—George Lakey dispels these myths. He ex-plores the inner-workings of the Nordic economies that boast the world’s happiest, most productive workers, and explains how, if we can enact some of the changes the Scandinavians fought for surprisingly recently, we, too, can embrace equality in our economic policy.

PRAISE FOR VIKING ECONOMICS

“Tells a story of economic change and the foundations on which it was built…it is so obvious that such narratives are desperately needed in modern political discourse.”

—Richard Murphy, Times Higher Education magazine

“Viking Economics shows us there’s no reason we couldn’t be making far more progress across a wide range of problems.

—Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org

“Viking Economics helps us envision a different way of orga-nizing our economy to put people and planet first. ”

—Chuck Collins, author of Wealthy, Come Home

“The Nordic model has proven extraordinarily successful…This short book is a great starting point for those looking for insights into the origins and structure of this model.” —Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and

Policy Research

“Brilliant, fun to read, and most timely…Bravo for this great source of evidence-grounded hope!”—Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet


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ON SALE NOW

Trade Paperback - 288 pp - 5.5 x 8.25 inPolitical Science - Biography - Elections

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Foreign Languages

RIGHTS SOLD

Polish (Stanislawa Brzozowskiego)Slovenian (MLADINSKA KNIJIGA)Turkish (Bal Yayinlari)Mongolian (Monsudar)Italian (Giulio Einaudi)Danish (ArtPeople)Spanish (Captain Swing)Dutch (Ambo|Anthos)German (Benevento)Portuguese (20/20 Vogais)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON is winner of a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for journalism and the author of several New York Times bestsell-ers, including Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch.

THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMPDAVID CAY JOHNSTON

“A searing indictment.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Covering the long arc of Trump’s career, Johnston tells the full story of how a boy from Queens, NY would become an entirely new, and complex, breed of public figure.

From the origins of his family’s fortune, to his own too-big-to-fail business empire; from his education and early career, to his whirlwind and ultimately successful presidential bid, The Mak-ing of Donald Trump provides the fullest picture yet of Trump’s extraordinary ascendency.

Drawing on decades of interviews, financial records, court doc-uments, and public statements, David Cay Johnston gives us the most in-depth look yet at the man whose rise to President of the United States shocked the world.

PRAISE FOR THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP

”Provides useful, vigorously reported overviews of Mr. Trump’s life and career…a searing indictment.”

—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

”This year’s must-read Trump book.”—Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC’s The Last Word

”Johnston devastatingly covers ground…The best of investiga-tive reporting.” —USA Today

”[Johnston] makes a compelling case that Trump has the attri-butes of both ‘dictator’ and ‘deceiver’ and would be a disaster in the Oval Office.” —Financial Times

”A devastating attack.” —The Independent

”Highly damning.” —Kirkus Reviews

”A crisply matter-of-fact…scrupulously detailed and docu-mented chronicle.” —Booklist


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COMING SOON:Christopher HitchensBillie Holiday

THE LAST INTERVIEW* SERIES RIGHTS ARE AVAILABLESOME PORTIONS OF THE TEXT MAY REQUIRE ADDITIONAL PERMISSIONS

ON SALE NOW

Paperback - 208 pp - 5.5 x 8.25 in.Biography & Autobiography

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Please contact us at [email protected] for complete rights information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVID BOWIE was one of the most in-fluential muscians, performers, and song writers of the last fifty years, captivating generations of fans and inspiring count-less performers across every creative genre. He died on January 10, 2016 — two days after the release of his 35th album, Black Star.

DAVID BOWIETHE LAST INTERVIEW

“I wish he could have stayed on earth longer.” —J.K. Rowling

The massive, world-wide outpouring of grief at the death of David Bowie notably focussed on not only his stunning musi-cal output, but also his fascinating refusal to stay the same -- the same as other trending artists, or even the same as himself. As with the death of John Lennon, people were clearly struck by the soulful character of the artist, as much as the art.

In this remarkable collection, Bowie reveals the fierce intel-lectualism, artistry, and humor behind it all. From his very first interview – as a teenager on the BBC, before he was even a musician – to his last (which is perhaps the only interview he gave for the last ten years of his life), Bowie is always open and engaged, taking on the most probling questions, to candidly discuss his sexuality, his drug usage, his sense of fashion, how he composed, and more.

For fans still mourning his passing, as well as for those who know little about him, it’s a revealing, interesting, and inspir-ing look at one of the most influential artsists of the last fifty years.

PRAISE FOR DAVID BOWIE

“David’s friendship was the light of my life. I never met such a brilliant person. He was the best there is.” —Iggy Pop

“As well as being a wonderful and kind man, [Bowie] was an extraordinary artist, and a true original.” —The Rolling Stones

“David Bowie was one of my most important inspirations, so fearless, so creative, he gave us magic for a lifetime.” —Kanye West


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ON SALE NOW


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ABOUT OLIVER SACKS

OLIVER SACKS was born in 1933 in London and was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford. Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations. His work has been acknowledged by the Guggenheim Foun-dation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Let-ters, and the Royal College of Physicians. He died in 2015.

OLIVER SACKSTHE LAST INTERVIEW

“Dr. Sacks conjures apparitions in language that has an easy, tactile magic...”

—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Hailed by The New York Times as “the poet laureate of medi-cine,” Oliver Sacks illuminated the mysteries of the brain for a wide audience in a series of richly acclaimed – and best-selling – books, including Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, as well as in articles in The New Yorker.

In this rich collection of interviews, which stretch from early in his career to his last, Sacks is strikingly candid and disarm-ing, responding to probing questions to gaze inwardly beyond his character as a doctor. Rich with insights about his life and work, the book will be welcome by Oliver Sacks’ fans as an entirely new way of looking at a brilliant writer.

PRAISE FOR OLIVER SACKS

“It is rare, indeed, when such an expert is also a talented writ-er…It is remarkable to see the consistency of this literate, in-quiring mind.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Amazing…Sacks’s temperament…facilitates that extraor-dinar humanity, that loving curiosity about the experiences of other people, that near-magical ability to see how even the most seemingly devastating losses may be remedied by the mind’s remarkable powers of compensation.” —Bookforum


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ON SALE NOW


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ABOUT J.D. SALINGER

J.D. SALINGER was one of the most in-fluential writers of the 20th century. His landmark novel The Catcher in the Rye is a defining novel of post-WWII America and continues to sell more than 250,000 copies a year. Though he continued to write up until his death in 2010, Salinger was fiercely reclusive and stopped pub-lishing his work in 1965; very little of his work survives.

ABOUT THE EDITORDavid Streitfeld is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has covered books, business, and technology for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. He is currently a columnist for the New York Times.

J.D. SALINGERTHE LAST INTERVIEW

“A man who used language as if it were pure energy.”

—Richard Yates

Holden Caulfield might have one of the most recognizable voices in American literature, but, as readers, we’ve heard pre-cious little from his legendary creator, J. D. Salinger.

J. D. Salinger: The Last Interview collects the rare, revealing, and essential public records of the elusive giant--from his very first interview with Book of the Month Club magazine, to his last (a deposition in his suit against his biographer Ian Ham-ilton, of all things), and the little-known conversations in be-tween. It offers insights into Salinger’s early days as a writer (when he’d had only one story published), his attempts to kill a book of pirated stories, and the late “comeback” that he may or may not have even wanted.

Amusing, enlightening, and expertly selected, these docu-ments reveal a man fiercely resistant to the spotlight, but pow-erless to escape its glare.

PRAISE FOR J.D. SALINGER

“[Salinger was] a man who used language as if it were pure energy beautifully controlled, and who knew exactly what he was doing in every silence as well as in every word.” —Richard Yates

“His is the most influential body of work in English prose by anyone since Hemingway.” —Harold Brodkey


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ON SALE


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ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. is widely considered the most influential leader of the Civil Rights Movement in America. He was also a Baptist minister, an inspir-ing orator, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929, King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed by Con-gress one week later, on April 11.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.THE LAST INTERVIEW

A timely collection of pivotal inter-views with the most influential lead-

er of the Civil Rights Movement

As the Black Lives Matter movement gains momentum, and books like Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen swing national attention toward the racism and violence that continue to poison our communi-ties, it’s as urgent now as ever to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., whose insistence on equality and peace defined the Civil Rights Movement and forever changed the course of Ameri-can history.

This collection ranges from an early 1961 interview in which King describes his reasons for joining the ministry (after con-sidering medicine), to a 1964 conversation with Robert Penn Warren, to his last interview, which was conducted on stage at the convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, just ten days before King’s assassination.

Timely, poignant, and inspiring, Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Last Interview is an essential addition to the Last Interview series.


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Documents

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