sold Martin Luther King’s Original Signed Contract to Publish His First Book in Spanish

Along With His Literary Agent’s Copy of That Book.

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The Montgomery boycott was the outgrowth of an incident in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. The boycott was organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association, which chose as its leader a young minister new to the Alabama city who had impressed...

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sold Martin Luther King’s Original Signed Contract to Publish His First Book in Spanish

Along With His Literary Agent’s Copy of That Book.

The Montgomery boycott was the outgrowth of an incident in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. The boycott was organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association, which chose as its leader a young minister new to the Alabama city who had impressed local black leaders and not been in town long enough to foster any opposition in the community – Martin Luther King, Jr. Over the next two years, King and his fellow boycotters dodged assassination attempts, dealt with violence and constant threats of violence, wrangled with local politicians, kept their people inspired, and facilitated transportation for the thousands of usual bus riders who chose to refuse to financially support the systemic ill treatment they received riding public buses in Montgomery. The boycott marked the start of the Civil Rights movement and was the first of its major victories. It also catapulted its leader, Dr. King, to national prominence.

In 1958, King wrote his account of the Montgomery boycott in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, which is an admirable blend of autobiography, theology, ethics, history, and sociology. In it, King described the action’s ethical grounding along with its logistics, and detailed the violence committed by the segregationists. It also discussed his reading of Gandhi and the worldview he developed as a result, including the philosophy of nonviolence and his belief in a “practical spirituality.” Moreover, it provided a virtual roadmap for others by laying out the nuts and bolts of organizing effective protests.

King was both inspirational and prophetic when, in the book, he issued his famous call to action – one that would eventually bring down segregation and establish his place in history: “The way of nonviolence means a willingness to suffer and sacrifice._t may mean going to jail._f such is the case the resister must be willing to fill the jail houses of the South._t may even mean physical death._ut if physical death is the price that a man must pay to free his children and his white brethren from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive.” Interestingly, the book has literary as well as political merit, as based on it, King has been named a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

To assist him in dealing with publishers and contract negotiations relating to Stride Toward Freedom, King hired New York literary agent Joan Daves. As his stature grew, the book came to the attention of people worldwide, and a demand arose for foreign-language editions. The most significant such translation would be into Spanish, as that would make it accessible throughout Latin America as well as Spain. The publisher Editorial Agora approached Daves to print a Spanish edition, and she negotiated terms acceptable to King.

Typed Document Signed, a three legal-size page contract, New York, August 30, 1962, in which King grants Editorial Agora the right to “translate the work into the Spanish language and to publish and sell copies of such translation…” King received $150 as an advance against royalties of  7 1/2% for the first 3,000 books sold and 10% for all subsequent books. King retained the copyright rights.

The resulting book, entitled Viajeros de la Libertad, was published in Spanish the following year. His literary agent’s own copy, stamped “Joan Daves File Copy. Do Not Remove” on the front free endpaper, is included.

 

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