Description
Signed first edition, first printing of Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Octavo, xii, 178pp. Black cloth spine, gray boards, title stamped in gilt on spine. Slight bow to front cover. First edition statement on copyright page with “D-O,” noting a first printing. Solid text block, light rubbing to edges, faint offsetting to endpapers, a very good example. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, $3.50 price and “0664” code on front flap, and no mention of the Nobel Peace Prize on rear panel. Light shelf wear, with dust remnants and small chips along edges. Three-inch closed tear to front panel, stabilized with archival tissue repair on verso. Housed in a custom black cloth clamshell, with title in gilt on spine.
Signed by the author on the front free endpaper “Best Wishes / Martin Luther King.”
Why We Can’t Wait details Martin Luther King Jr.’s prioritization of nonviolence in the Civil Rights Movement. He names events like Brown v. Board, the decolonization of Africa, and the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation as reasons 1963 is the beginning of “The Negro Revolution.” This book was published the same year King received the Nobel Peace Prize, and simultaneously increased circulation of King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
