Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of six books, including his most recent, Pulitzer Prize-winning King: A Life. Vividly written and exhaustively researched, it is the first major biography in decades of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, Eig gives us an intimate view of King, who masterfully employed peaceful protest in the streets but was rarely at peace with himself. From the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr. WTTW's Mark Bazer will join Jonathan in conversation.

REGISTER HERE for this Zoom program. A recording will be available for a limited time on the Illinois Libraries Present YouTube channel, and a link will be emailed to all registrants.

Jonathan Eig began his writing career at age 16, working for his hometown newspaper, The Rockland County Journal News (N.Y.). He studied journalism at Northwestern University, and went on to work as a reporter for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Dallas Morning News, Chicago, and The Wall Street Journal 

Mark Bazer is a editorial director, writer, editor, interviewer and producer. He is the host of The Interview Show, frequently moderates events for Chicago Humanities, and is a contributing writer for Chicago.