TAYLOR BRANCH'S MONUMENTAL THREE-VOLUME HISTORY OF MLK AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, EACH VOLUME INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY BRANCH

(KING, Martin Luther, Jr.) BRANCH, Taylor. America in the King Years: Parting the Waters; Pillar of Fire; At Canaan's Edge. New York, et al.: Simon and Schuster, (1988, 1998, 2006). Three volumes. Octavo, original half cloth, original dust jackets. $1250.

First editions of Branch's landmark three-volume history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, from 1954-68, each volume inscribed and signed by Branch.

The first volume in Branch's groundbreaking work, Parting the Waters, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. "America in the King Years, Branch's running title for the trilogy, is not a mere conceit, a fancy way of describing a biography. It is not a biography of Dr. King. It is a picture of the country and the times as he intersected with them… [At Canaan's Edge] is a thrilling book, marvelous in both its breadth and its detail. There is drama in every paragraph. Every factual statement is backed up in 200 pages of endnotes" (New York Times). Parting the Waters is inscribed on the front free endpaper: "For Harold, with best wishes, Taylor Branch, 1/11/89." Pillar of Fire, the second volume, is inscribed in the year of publication on the title page, "For Harold Mays, with best wishes, Taylor Branch, June 18, 1998." At Canaan's Edge, the third volume, is signed and dated in the year of publication on the title page, "Taylor Branch, Jan. 27, 2006."

Fine condition.