Biographies

Authors Thomas Cahill and Marshall Frady discussed their contributions to the Penguin Lives series of short biographies published by Viking. Mr. Cahill’s subject is Pope John XXIII who became a major reformer of the Catholic Church and one of the most influential pontiffs in history, although he was pope for a relatively brief period. Mr. Frady used twenty-five years of commentary on American race relations to interweave the history of the civil rights movement with the story Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his rise to national prominence. The book examines the life and character of the minister-activist, from his childhood, to the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott of 1955-56, to his death in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. A question and answer period followed the authors' presentations. close