Source: Washingtonpost.com

Yesterday, the Pulitzer Prizes for 2012 were announced, and snagging the win in the history category was the biographical New York Times bestseller, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.”

The win was bittersweet considering the author, Manning Marable, died three days before the book was published last April. According to the New York Times, the Columbia University professor:

“spent two decades researching the black nationalist leader’s transformation from petty criminal to separatist firebrand to mainstream Muslim preaching peace to, finally, martyr…

“In untangling the mythologies surrounding Malcolm X, including his own best-selling autobiography, Mr. Marable achieved what the citation called ‘a work that separates fact from fiction and blends the heroic and the tragic.’”

Marable died of complications from pneumonia on April 1, 2011 in New York City at the age of 60.

Another surprise among this year’s Pulitzer wins is that no work of fiction was deemed worthy of the $10,000 award, making this the first time this happened in 35 years. You can check out the full list of nominees and winners here.

Have you read Marable’s biography of Malcolm X?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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by Andrea Williams

Viking Press, the publisher of Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, predicts that Dr. Manning Marable’s epic account of the life and death of one of America’s most celebrated and vilified activists “will stand as the definitive work on the man and his legacy.”  Though only time can prove the validity of that claim, the book’s April 4^th release sparked a media firestorm almost immediately.  Despite receiving praise from notable African-American intellectuals, including Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson and Henry Louis Gates, the book has also garnered its fair share of critics and others who have eagerly sensationalized parts of the content.  We’ve read all 487 pages of the book that took Marable two decades to write, and here shed light on some of the most controversial topics concerning his personal life.

Two of Malcolm X’s daughters, Ilyasah and Malaak Shabazz, are not happy about the newly released biography, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention”.

The book,  written by the now deceased scholar, Manning Marable, claims that the marriage between Malcolm and Betty was strained and that one or both of them was unfaithful.

Ilyasah and Malaak, who’ve said they have not read the book yet, are not pleased with this portrayal of their parents.  They assert that their parents’ marriage was a loving one

The book, which took Marable 20 years to complete, is composed of government documents, private papers and thousands of interviews; but, did not include any input from these two daughters.

For the rest of the story check out AOL Black Voices.

In a New York Times book review of Manning Marable’s just released biography on Malcolm X, it is revealed that Marable’s quintessential work is embedded with a Trojan horse that, once installed and released, will eviscerate the long held – and mostly cosmetic –representation of one of our most beloved civil rights leaders.  The review reads as follows:

“Malcolm X himself contributed to many of the fictions, Mr. Marable argues, by exaggerating, glossing over or omitting important incidents in his life. These episodes include a criminal career far more modest than he claimed, an early homosexual relationship with a white businessman…”

The claim – that Malcolm X took, or was taken with, a white male lover- is now perfectly poised to ignite a firestorm of debate in the African American community. But just as Marable’s biography affords us the opportunity to reexamine the inner workings of a leader who offered the ultimatum of “the bullet or the ballot box” as the only alternative to a pacifist movement, it also offers African Americans the unique opportunity to examine ourselves and our progress post Malcolm and Martin. Just as we are now peering into the most intimate details of Malcolm’s life, so must we examine our own psychological progress.

And if African-Americans had truly absorbed the historical lessons of race hatred, many of which are drawn directly from the experience of being outsiders in one’s own country, we would demonstrate an inclination toward embracing human complexity.  Instead, however, our tendency is to judge those who deviate outside the bounds of archetypical expressions of manhood, womanhood, and even humankind.

We were shocked at revelations about M. L. King’s extramarital affairs and in the 21^st century, Malcolm X is not alone in the category of deceased and deified exemplars that have had their celestial status come crashing down amid claims that their behavior was inconsistent with their ideals.  In the recently released biography, “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India”, author Joseph Lelyveld recalls Gahndi’s particularly disparaging view of black South Africans:

“We could understand not being classed with whites, but to be placed on the same level as the ­Natives seemed too much to put up with. Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilized—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals.”

I don’t dispute that Gandhi’s feeling of being a bit higher up on the totem pole than black South Africans, and Malcolm X’s homosexual tryst (or love affair, not sure which since I haven’t read the book), are, if true, revelatory on many levels. However, my reaction to both is the same:  big shrug.

In response to who we are as humans, our individual psychology, our connections, and our desire for connection, we express our humanity in a variety of ways, none of which are identical in their manifestations.  If Malcolm expressed his affection with a man, so be it.

And I’m even less surprised that Gandhi would adopt some of the same traits as his white colonizers. When insults and degrading classifications are heaped upon you, projecting those insults onto another class of people is a neat – albeit destructive- psychological trick.

Gandhi and Malcolm X were–first and foremost–human.  All humans are allowed their own particular incarnation and do not require our approval or acceptance to exist. In fact, any person who requires the approval of another is owned by that person or group. I for one am happy that Gandhi and Malcolm X weren’t owned by anyone. Could they really have accomplished what they did had they been preoccupied with the reactions and petty assessments of others?

In a letter to her husband John Adams, Abigail Adams said that “all men would be tyrants if they could.” Most men, and increasingly many women, gravitate toward tyrannical leadership models once they are in a place of entrenched power.  We should be forever grateful for the few men and women who chose to answer the call to serve.  And we should appreciate the full portrait that biographers like Marable are painting since they teach us that our leaders aren’t gods, but human like us. And what they can do, so can we. An honest portrait empowers us while a dishonest portrait deifies our leaders while caricaturing the masses as weak.

Instead of igniting debate, the new insights into the lives of Malcolm X and Gandhi should inspire us all to apply our talents and embrace the grandest idea of ourselves. These insights actually aren’t a Trojan horse at all, but a gift for the benefit of humanity–but we’ll only reap these benefits if we’re evolved enough to receive them.  Standing around the water cooler discussing the details of Malcolm’s sexuality or Gandhi’s view of blacks doesn’t move us forward in the least.

Yvette Carnell is a former Capitol Hill Staffer turned political blogger. She currently publishes two blogs, Spatterblog.com and BreakingBrown.com.

(New York Times) –For two decades, the Columbia University professor Manning Marable focused on the task he considered his life’s work: redefining the legacy of Malcolm X. Last fall he completed “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” a 594-page biography described by the few scholars who have seen it as full of new and startling information and insights. The book is scheduled to be published on Monday, and Mr. Marable had been looking forward to leading a vigorous public discussion of his ideas.

But on Friday Mr. Marable, 60, died in a hospital in New York as a result of medical problems he thought he had overcome. Officials at Viking, which is publishing the book, said he was able to look at it before he died. But as his health wavered, they were scrambling to delay interviews, including an appearance on the “Today” show in which his findings would have finally been aired.

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