The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

“It is remarkable that the Paynes did not simply visit archives, they created the archive through thousands of eye-witness reports and personal documents. They went way beyond the declassified FBI files and secondhand stories of the legend of Malcolm’s transformation. Payne may have drawn on his journalistic skills to build this biography on first-hand accounts, oral history, but he also worked as a historian to contextualize these contradicting accounts and synthesize them into an extraordinary narrative.” Read more...

The Best Biographies: the 2021 NBCC Shortlist

Elizabeth Taylor, Biographer