“WHOSE CONSISTENT SUPPORT IS A GREAT SOURCE OF INSPIRATION? MARTIN”: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.’S LAST BOOK, EXCEPTIONAL PRESENTATION COPY WARMLY INSCRIBED BY MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. TO CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS MARIAN AND ARTHUR LOGAN

KING Jr., Martin Luther. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, (1967). Octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, presentation/association copy, of King’s last book, published the year before he was assassinated, in scarce original dust jacket, inscribed by him, “To My Dear Friends Marian & Arthur Logan, For whom I have great respect and admiration and whose consistent support is a great source of inspiration. Martin.” Inscriptions signed with King’s first name only are rare.

King’s final book was published the year before the legendary civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis. Based upon his last address as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, delivered in August 1967, the book discusses issues raised by recent urban race riots, white backlash, and the 1966 shooting of James Meredith. “We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together—black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu.” Copyright page with “First Edition” stated, “D-R” code. Civil rights activist Marian Bruce Logan, who had been a cabaret singer in her youth, married Duke Ellington’s physician, Arthur C. Logan. “Mrs. Logan was an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a campaign aide for several political figures, including Nelson A. Rockefeller, Robert F. Kennedy and Robert F. Wagner. Mayor Abraham D. Beame appointed Mrs. Logan to head the Commission on Human Rights in 1977. During her two-year tenure she worked to stop the practice of redlining, by which banks and savings and loan institutions refuse to make mortgage loans to residents of certain areas. Along with her husband, Dr. Arthur C. Logan, a surgeon, she was involved in efforts to stabilize the West Side as an integrated community during urban-renewal efforts there. Mrs. Logan was a socially prominent fund-raiser who generated financial backing for both national and local civil-rights issues and causes, particularly those of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Mrs. Logan was at one time the only Northern board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She also raised money for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Urban League. In 1971 the Citizens Union presented Dr. and Mrs. Logan with awards for outstanding public service for their prominence in campaigning for civil rights and better public health. During her career in show business she sang using the stage name Marian Bruce. In the 1940s and 1950s she starred in the first all-black show to be presented in a Miami Beach nightclub. She also sang in Europe” (New York Times obituary).

Interior fine. Some wear to extremities and soiling to extremities. Bright dust jacket with light wear to extremities, shallow chipping to spine ends, and some soiling to rear panel. An extremely good copy with important provenance.