Description
Signed first edition of Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Martin Luther King, Jr., signed by Martin Luther King Jr., his wife, Coretta Scott King and his mother, Alberta Williams King.
Octavo, 230pp, [2]. Blue cloth covers, title in silver on black spine. The first printing, with “First Edition” on copyright page, and the publisher’s “H-H” date code. Wear from handling to black cloth along spine, rubbing along edges of boards, solid text block. Light offsetting to endpapers. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, $2.95 retail price on front flap, lightly shelf worn, faint soiling to rear panel, a bright, near fine example. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell, title in gilt on black morocco label affixed to spine.
Signed by Martin Luther King, Jr. on the front free endpaper, with additional signatures by “Mrs. Martin L. King, Jr.” (Coretta Scott King) and the mother of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Mrs. Martin L. King, Sr.” (Alberta Williams King). An exceptional collection of signatures from the King family.
This book was signed for Mrs. LaVerne Hinton by the King family at the 1958 National Baptist Convention in Chicago, held from September 9-14. At the convention, Dr. King delivered a sermon to the Women’s Convention Auxiliary titled “A Knock at Midnight,” which was attended by Mrs. Hinton. Copies of this book, “Stride Toward Freedom,” were available for sale at the Chicago convention, the week before it’s public availability on September 17th, 1958. At the convention, Mrs. Hinton “…pressed her way through the crowd and got all three signatures.”
This exceptional copy is the only known book signed by both Alberta Williams King, and her son, Dr. King. This copy also bears the rare signature of Coretta Scott King as “Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” with no other known examples signed this way.
