The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X and Alex Haley (1965)
“The most radical act of self-invention in American literature — a man who remade himself four times and was killed before he could finish the fifth.”
At a Glance
Malcolm Little is born into a family targeted by white supremacists, loses his father to probable murder, watches his mother's mental breakdown, and lands in foster care. He moves to Boston and Harlem, becomes a hustler and drug dealer, and is sentenced to ten years in prison for burglary. In prison he discovers the Nation of Islam and reinvents himself as Malcolm X — the most electrifying Black voice in America. He rises to national prominence as the NOI's chief spokesman, then breaks with Elijah Muhammad after learning of his mentor's hypocrisy. A pilgrimage to Mecca transforms his understanding of race. He returns to found a new movement, and is assassinated before the autobiography is published.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Published six months after Malcolm's assassination, the autobiography became an immediate bestseller and has sold over ten million copies. It is consistently ranked among the most important nonfiction books of the twentieth century. For the Black Power, Black Arts, and Black Studies movements of the late 1960s, it was the foundational text. It remains one of the most assigned books in American colleges and high schools, and is in continuous print in dozens of languages.
Diction Profile
Shifts between vernacular storytelling, formal theological discourse, and political oratory — three distinct registers that correspond to Malcolm's three major identities
Moderate but precise