TCPL is excited to welcome author Jonathan Eig to the Library on Monday, February 10 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eig will be speaking about, “King: A Life,” his biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that was awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. “King: A Life” was also a New York Times Best Seller, a winner of the New York Historical Society’s 2024 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize and was included among former President Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023.

The program is free to the public. After his presentation, Eig will take part in a Q&A session as well as a book signing in conjunction with Odyssey Bookstore. The event is made possible by support from the Tompkins County Public Library Foundation, which supports TCPL through community engagement and fundraising.

“I am thrilled to welcome Jonathan Eig to TCPL and am grateful to the TCPL Foundation for their partnership in bringing him to Ithaca!” Tompkins County Public Library Director Leslie Tabor said.

The Pulitzer Prizes praised “King: A Life” as “a landmark biography [that] gives us an MLK for our times.”

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death.

Eig, a New York native, is the author of six other adult titles, including New York Times best sellers: “Ali: A Life,” “Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season,” “Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig,” and the Lola Jones series of children’s books.

“My husband loved his biography of Muhammad Ali, and I loved reading ‘Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig,’ and we look forward to reading ‘King: A Life’,” Director Tabor said. “Public libraries are committed to racial and social justice and biographies like Eig’s help us build empathy and compassion for stories different than our own. Hosting Jonathan is exciting and TCPL looks forward to welcoming everyone to this special event on February 10.”

Eig also served as a consulting producer for the PBS/ Ken Burns-directed series “Muhammad Ali.” Eig’s fourth book, “The Birth of the Pill” has been adapted into a stage production by playwright Jessica Huang. In his online biography though, Eig says his “greatest claim to fame, according to his parents,” was when his name was included as the answer to this question on Jeopardy! in May 2019: “Jonathan Eig's bio of this champ who passed away in 2016 is one of the "Greatest" sports biographies.” William Tran successfully answered, “Who was Muhammad Ali?” for $200.

Eig will give his presentation on “King: A Life” in TCPL’s BorgWarner Community Room, and overflow seating will also be available.