To Eugene Exman
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: March 9, 1962
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Details
King promises the vice president of Harper & Brothers’ religious book department that he will finish his book of sermons in time to meet a spring 1963 publication date.1 Although King spent much of the summer focused on the Albany campaign, Strength to Love was published in June 1963.2
Dr. Eugene Exman
Harper & Brothers
49 East 33d Street
New York 16, New York
Dear Gene:
I am happy to know that my book was selected by the American Booksellers Association as one of the 500 books presented to President Kennedy.3 I was not aware of this and I am grateful to you for calling it to my attention.
Again I am confronting problems with the manuscript of sermons. So many things have come up in the Civil Rights struggle recently that I have had to give virtually all of my time to the movement. Frankly, I cannot see a let-up for the next few months so I have decided to take a month off this Summer and finish the manuscript. I deeply regret the delay because I had so much wanted to finish the book by last December. As it stands now, we would have to think in terms of a publication date around the Spring of 1963. As things develop, I will let you hear from me.
Very truly yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
1. King had already devoted August 1961 to work on the manuscript, hoping to meet a November deadline, but missed it “for the usual reasons” (King to Exman, 4 December 1961). Eugene Exman (1900–1975), born in Blanchester, Ohio, received a B.Phil. from Denison University in 1922 and an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1925. After working at the University of Chicago Press as a salesman from 1925–1928, Exman joined Harper & Brothers as editor-manager of its religious books department. Exman became director of the department in 1944 and vice president in 1955. After retiring in 1965, Exman wrote two books on Harper’s history, The Brothers Harper, 1817–1853 (1965) and The House of Harper (1967).
2. For more on Strength to Love’s publication, see Introduction in Papers 6:35–44.
3. Following Herbert Hoover’s inauguration in 1929, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) donated five hundred books to the White House to start a private library. Every four years since, the ABA donates two hundred books, including various genres reflecting contemporary trends, to the library’s collection. King’s book Stride Toward Freedom was one of the two hundred books donated by the ABA to President Kennedy on 18 January 1961 (American Booksellers Association, Press release, “The 1961 Presentation to the Home Library of the White House,” 18 January 1962; “Zoo Books Given to White House,” New York Times, 19 January 1962).
Source: MCMLK-RWWL, Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives and Special Collections, Atlanta, Ga.