Now available as an eBook for the very first time! • ONE OF TIME’S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the … movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America.
Praise for The Autobiography of Malcolm X
“Malcolm X’s autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me; the blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will.”—Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father
“Extraordinary . . . a brilliant, painful, important book.”—The New York Times
“A great book . . . Its dead level honesty, its passion, its exalted purpose, will make it stand as a monument to the most painful truth.”—The Nation
“The most important book I’ll ever read, it changed the way I thought, it changed the way I acted. It has given me courage I didn’t know I had inside me. I’m one of hundreds of thousands whose lives were changed for the better.”—Spike Lee
“This book will have a permanent place in the literature of the Afro-American struggle.”—I. F. Stone
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Happy birthday to Malcolm X.
This is such an amazing book & everyone should read it.
A journey through the mind of the most powerful Black American political figures of his time, Mr Malcolm X. I do not need to say more.
Even without knowing a great deal about the man, I had no doubt he was highly intelligent. He was also a public enemy for many government agencies involved in anti-American activities. I should have read this years ago when it was still relevant. Now having read it, I realize this is still relevant with all of the Black Lives Matters movement and some of the racial unrest brought about by present administration promoting bigotry and division. His words about race moved me. Where I was once a proponent of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X must be given serious consideration in the discussion about race. He is articulate and insightful. His story was written by Alex Haley, the author of Roots and one of the most famous Playboy interviewers found himself challenged by Malcolm who chose Islam as his religion because White Christianity was stifling the civil rights movement and marginalizing all citizens of color. This is a must read for anyone trying to get a grip on the racial struggle in this country.
One of the most revealing books about Malcolm X, his life and his decision about Islsm, and his revelations about Elijah Mohammed. ..the reason for his assassination.
It was like an opening into a world few Caucasians ever see, or know.
Gives great insight into the black community of the 1950-1960’s.
Very good read!!!
“Grace meets you exactly where you are and it doesn’t leave you.”
I heard the author Anne Lamott say this quote on the Tim Ferriss podcast a couple of days ago and knew this would be the opening sentence to my latest book review. Grace would be the proper view about Malcolm X’s life after reading his autobiography, as told by Alex Haley. Grace has been co-opted on both sides of the religious/secular spectrum, but I think it is the word to use for a human being’s transformation during their lifetime.
This book is usually read by high school or college students and has been one of the most important books they have ever read. Well, it took into my late 40s to read Malcolm X’s autobiography, but I totally agree that it is one of the most important books I have ever read.
I will admit that I don’t think I have anything profound or revolutionary to write about a book that has been considered life-changing for many readers around the world. Malcolm X’s finally agreed to tell his life story about growing up in the Midwest, moving to Boston where he begins his gangster lifestyle, and how it caught up with him while living in Harlem and his transformation after getting out of prison and connecting with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam at the time and ultimately his separation from them and into a new spiritual awakening during his pilgrimage to Mecca. We have covered these aspects of his life many times over. I would like to share a few items that deeply moved me while reading his life’s story.
Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. My reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.
I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.
Malcolm X discovers how the power of reading can be a primer for the imagination, a stimulant for curiosity, and create a haven in place as dark as prison. When I read that section of that book…I knew he got it and would forever change his life. The paragraph my augments my belief that one should read often and widely as possible. Art is the best and safest place to feed that curiosity and a deeply rewarding facet of one’s life.
If the American black man will start thinking about his human rights, and then start thinking of himself as part of one of the world’s great peoples, he will see he has a case for the United Nations.
The American white man has so thoroughly brainwashed the black man to see himself as only a domestic “civil rights” problem that it will probably take longer than I live before before the Negro sees that the struggle of the American black man is international.
Those last two paragraphs definitely come across as provocative in 1965 and still that way in 2021. However, I have always thought my perspective as an American black man was too narrow. Thanks to reading and a few trips aboard to open up my world wider. Malcolm X discovers the same thing in his life and sees the struggle of black folks from an international perspective. Again, reading this section touched me deeply and augments my belief to keep widening my lens and connecting with people on a larger stage.
In closing, it is said when life gives you a blow that cuts deeply, sometimes a balm can come from an unexpected place. This balm came from a book where an influential leader told his life story. The power of story is universal and in the pages of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, human transformation is always available to those who seek it. And if we give people “grace” to change their lives, the fruit will ripen at the right time.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X joins the very short list of the most important books I have read in my life along Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Before The Mayflower by Lerone Bennett Jr., Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Home Is The Sailor by Jorge Amado, and The Book of Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament. Malcolm X’s life story is must read all for readers.
After hearing the story behind my first name – that my mother and aunt argued over it (my aunt wanted me named ‘Malcolm’ in commemoration of Malcolm X while my mother preferred ‘Barry’), I became compelled to read the story of the man’s life.
Born as Malcolm Little, the book covered Malcolm X’s life from his early childhood in Omaha, Nebraska to his family’s move to Michigan where they continue to be persecuted and subjected to racial injustice. After whites murder his father and force his mother into a mental institution, he completes middle school and relocates to Boston to live with his half-sister.
Malcolm quickly ends up involved with the city’s nightlife and the various vices that accompany it. Upon landing a job as a railway porter, he moves to New York and ends up as a hustler on the streets of Harlem. When things get too messy, Malcolm returned to Boston and became engaged in home robberies which resulted a prison sentence.
While in prison Malcolm ends up adopting the Islamic faith and rehabilitating himself. His conversion to Islam prompts other changes in his life including reading, praying, learning English and Latin and giving up drugs. He also joins the prison debate team. These changes eventually result in Malcolm being released on parole in the custody of his brother in Detroit where he became an active member of the Nation of Islam.
During this period Malcolm received permission to replace his so-called slave name ‘Little’ with a placeholder ‘X’ to represent the lost names of his African ancestors. His activism eventually leads to recognition by and friendship with the Nation of Islam’s leader Elijah Mohammad.
After quickly rising through the ranks of the organization and becoming known internationally as an advocate for black unity, jealousy and envy begins to permeate leadership of the Nation of Islam and they began to look for ways to censure him. A falling out with Elijah Mohammad resulted in his leaving the organization and founding his own ‘Muslim Mosque’. The Nation of Islam’s continuing frustration with and resentment of Malcolm X eventually led to his assassination 1965.
‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ is one of the most informative autobiographies I’ve ever read.
I read this because I realized I knew nothing about Malcom X although I had heard the name all my life. I felt it presented a fair and unbiased picture of the man.
Wow ……just wow
I just saw One Night In Miami at the movies and it re-invigorated my love of this story. I read this book a long time ago and it gave me an understanding of who Malcolm X was and how he became a hero of triumph over adversity. I didn’t agree with everything he professed but I understood why he believed what he believed through his words as written by the great and late Alex Haley. I used to teach college-level psychology courses and used this book to demonstrate how we form and develop personalities and how environmental factors throughout our lives influence us. I definitely recommend this book…
I didn’t know much about Malcolm X, but this biography details the good and the bad.
Read this book in high school and looking forward to reading it again
Excellent- I read it 3 times.
This book is a story for the ages. Malcolm X came from a really tough beginning to take the world by storm and eventually by love. It is brilliantly written. I am so proud and glad to have read it
This is one of the greatest, most-impactful autobiographies every written. A true gem!
Historical , inspirational and well written.
A classic of Black history for the information on the life of Malcolm X and where many of us started our education about Black life.
Awesome
A fascinating look into Malcolm X. A great story.