The Rodel Institute has announced that Jonathan Eig’s biography King: A Life has won the 2024 Edwards Book Award.
The Edwards Book Award is given annually to a book that contributes to the understanding and practice of democracy and American politics. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, King: A Life provides a compelling account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s lifelong fight for racial and economic justice in America.
The Rodel Institute’s Lizzy McCourt Noonan, Executive Director of the Edwards Book Award, said: “Dr. King’s writing has long been part of the Rodel Fellowship’s curriculum. We hope this award will help focus attention on our desperate need for principled and inspiring leadership in America today.”
Ian Solomon, Dean of the UVA Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and a member of the Edwards Book Award Committee, stated: “Martin Luther King Jr.’s example of leadership to bridge divides offers valuable lessons for all of us working to build a more just, equal, and loving society. It is an honor to welcome biographer Jonathan Eig and the Rodel Institute to UVA Grounds to celebrate Dr. King’s life and Eig’s brilliant book.”
Jonathan Eig is an American journalist and biographer. Eig’s work has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, The New Yorker, and many other leading magazines and newspapers. His previous books include Ali: A Life (2017) and The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution (2014). In addition to winning the Edwards Books Award, King: A Life won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for biography.
