NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Promise and the Dream by David Margolick is the first book to examine the unique relationship between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy — a primer for the conversation to unfold this year, as the world marks the fiftieth anniversaries of their assassinations, which took place only two months apart.
Margolick, a noted journalist (the New York Times, Vanity Fair) and author, has delivered what is clearly the most intriguing, complex and ever-evolving relationship between two American icons.
“The tie between King and Kennedy is one of the most vexing, complex, and misunderstood,” said Margolick. “By recounting how two men whose views came together to such a degree could remain so personally distant, it shows how profound the racial divide in the United States in their era remained, despite their collective efforts.”
PRAISE FOR THE PROMISE AND THE DREAM
“I knew Martin Luther King like a brother, and David Margolick captures the cautious mutual admiration that existed between him and Robert Kennedy. Margolick has developed a portrait of two leaders cut down before the prime of life, and suggests what they might have done, separately or together, had they each lived twenty years longer.”
— Ambassador Andrew Young
“A vivid, vibrant, deeply thoughtful and well-informed reflection on the 1960s' two most fascinating public figures.”
—David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross and Rising Star
The Promise and the Dream fills a gaping historical void. To tell this story, Margolick utilized numerous untapped or under-utilized resources which included:
- Move than 30 extensive interviews with those who knew one or both well
- Newly unsealed oral histories
- FBI files of the two men
- Diaries and letters of historical witnesses
The Promise and the Dream is accompanied by a foreword by Douglas Brinkley and is complemented by eighty-three striking photographs by the foremost photojournalists of the period, offering a compelling look at one of the most consequential, and misunderstood, relationships in our nation’s history.
The Promise and the Dream is a Lawrence Schiller book. Schiller began his career as a photojournalist for Life, Time, and Paris Match, photographing some of the most iconic figures of the 1960s, from Lee Harvey Oswald to Robert F. Kennedy, from Ali and Foreman to Redford and Newman. He is an Emmy award winning Producer and Director and his 20 book projects include the Pulitzer Prize–winning book The Executioner’s Song, by Norman Mailer and five New York Times best sellers.
The Promise and the Dream will be distributed in hardcover through Creative Management Partners and Simon & Schuster and released as a Kindle eBook.
About David Margolick: David Margolick is a long-time contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Prior to that, for fifteen years he was a legal affairs reporter at the New York Times, where he covered the trials of O.J. Simpson and Lorena Bobbitt, among others, and wrote the weekly “At the Bar” column. His work there was nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize. He has been a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and the Wall Street Journal’s weekly Review section. He is the author of many books, including Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns; Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock; Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink; and Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song. He lives in New York City.
About Douglas Brinkley: Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University, the CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him “America’s new past master.” His book Cronkite won the Sperber Prize for Best Book in Journalism. Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. And in 2017 he won a Grammy for producing Presidential Suite (Large Jazz Ensemble). As the New York Historical Society’s Presidential Scholar, he works to promote the teaching of U.S. history far and wide. He divides his time between Austin, Texas, and New York City.
About RosettaBooks: RosettaBooks is a leading independent trade publisher headquartered in New York City. Launching in 2001, it pioneered the exclusive ebook publication of iconic titles, including those from Kurt Vonnegut and William Manchester. Today RosettaBooks focuses on publishing high visibility nonfiction titles. For more information, please visit RosettaBooks.com and follow the publisher on Facebook and Twitter.
CONTACT:
Publicity: Wiener Schiller Productions, Inc., Larry@WSProductionsinc.com
Marketing: Michelle Weyenberg, mweyenberg@rosettabooks.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c24ce308-f42e-4778-a880-bb6bb6143bc1