“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Letter from Birmingham Jail.
One of 600 copies of the Overbrook Press limited edition published the year King was assassinated, a publisher's presentation copy, accompanied by the publisher's presentation slip
Stamford, Connecticut: The Overbrook Press, 1968. Limited edition. Wraps. This is the Overbrook Press edition of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 16 April 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail, published in a limited edition of 600 copies in 1968, the year of King’s assassination. This copy is accompanied by the publisher's presentation slip. Condition is very good. The gray card wraps binding is complete and fully attached, with light wear only to the extremities where they overhang the text within and light spotting to the lower left front cover. The text is pristine – crisp and bright with no toning, spotting, or soiling. Laid in is the publisher’s presentation slip, printed in five lines: “Tribute to a great American | on the first anniversary | of his assassination | April 4, 1968 | Helen & Frank Altschul”.
Altschul wrote in his Foreword: “It was only after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. that I had occasion to read his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’ This eloquent document is now reprinted at the Overbrook Press as a tribute to the memory of the leader of ‘nonviolent-disobedience in the Civil Rights struggle.’”
On 3 April 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. King, joined a boycott in Birmingham, Alabama, one of the most racially segregated cities in the Country. The ‘Birmingham Campaign” protested business segregation ordinances. An injunction issued on 10 April banned all anti-segregation protest activity in the city. During a 12 April protest challenging the ban, King and dozens of others were violently arrested.
That same day, eight Birmingham clergymen wrote a criticism of the campaign that was published in the Birmingham News, calling its direct action strategy “unwise and untimely” and appealing “to both our white and Negro citizenry to observe the principles of law and order and common sense.”
King’s lengthy reply, written in longhand from Birmingham jail, became one of the most important documents of the Civil Rights era. “Following the initial circulation of King’s letter in Birmingham as a mimeographed copy, it was published in a variety of formats: as a pamphlet distributed by the American Friends Service Committee and as an article in periodicals such as Christian Century, Christianity and Crisis, the New York Post, and Ebony magazine. The first half of the letter was introduced into testimony before Congress… and published in the Congressional Record. One year later, King revised the letter and presented it as a chapter in his 1964 memoir of the Birmingham Campaign, Why We Can’t Wait, a book modeled after the basic themes set out in ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’”
While King was in jail, students joined the marches. Hundreds were arrested. Police used high-pressure hoses and dogs against both demonstrators and bystanders. The brutality fueled public outrage. On 10 May 1963, businesses agreed to desegregate stores. Jailed protesters were released and King’s SCLC agreed to end the protests.
This posthumous tribute limited edition includes the 12 April 1963 public statement by eight Alabama clergymen that prompted King’s reply, followed by King’s lengthy 16 April 1963 reply addressed to “My dear Fellow Clergymen”.
The publisher, Frank Altschul (1887-1981), was one of the most successful financiers of his time, with a keen interest in books, public affairs, and philanthropy. Altschul was a co-founder and the first chairman of the Yale Library Associates, which oversees all Yale libraries, and built the Beinecke Library that houses rare books, many of them gifts of Altschul. Altschul was a director of the English-Speaking Union, and served for many years as vice president of the Woodrow Wilson foundation and as vice president and secretary of the Council on Foreign Relations. Interested in printing since he was a boy, Altschul established Overbrook Press in an abandoned pigpen on his 450-acre Connecticut estate. From such humble origins, Overbrook Press specialized in exquisitely printed and illustrated limited edition books for collectors, with a reputation among bibliophiles for fine typography and careful bookmaking.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality… Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
Sources: Stanford; NPS. Item #008886
Price: $750.00