8vo. Illustrated from photographs. Original black cloth; dust jacket (very slight edgewear near spine ends, neat inked price notation below the printed price). Provenance: gift inscription from "W.W.D." to F & A. Gerspach.

FIRST EDITION. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was originally slated to be published by Doubleday, with the publisher opting to cancel its contract following the assassination of Malcolm X on February 21, 1965; this move has since been called "the most disastrous decision in corporate publishing history." Its influence on the civil rights movement and American culture as a whole is immeasurable, with Time naming it one of ten "required reading" non-fiction books in 1998.