Strength to Love.

KING JR., Martin Luther.

Item Number: 98984

New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963.

Early printing of Dr. King’s second book, of which Coretta Scott King noted, “If there is one book Martin Luther King, Jr. has written that people consistently tell me has changed their lives, it is Strength to Love.” Octavo, original half cloth. Boldly signed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Best Wishes, Martin Luther King.” Also laid in is an original photograph of Dr. King. Contemporary name to the pastedown, near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light wear.

Strength to Love was Martin Luther King’s first volume of sermons, published the same year in which he penned his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and joined the historic March on Washington and delivered his famous I have a dream speech. The following year he won the Nobel Peace Prize. King notes in the preface: “In these turbulent days of uncertainty the evils of war and of economic and racial injustice threaten the very survival of the human race. Indeed, we live in a day of grave crisis. The sermons in this volume have the present crisis as their background; and they have been selected for this volume because, in one way or another, they deal with the personal and collective problems that the crisis presents.” Coretta Scott King said about this book that it "best explains the central element of Martin Luther King, Jr.' s philosophy of nonviolence: His belief in a divine, loving presence that binds all life. By reaching into and beyond ourselves and tapping the transcendent moral ethic of love, we shall overcome these evils."