'What makes Mandela so special is that he's a real human being. . . . He's got a real life. And the fact that he is so flesh-and-blood real makes his greatness and his sacrifice and his wisdom and his courage in the face of all that has happened to him even more remarkable."-From the foreword by President Bill Clinton
Named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has dedicated his life to fighting racism, segregation, oppression, and exploitation-and championing democracy, equality, and education.
Mandela: The Authorized Portrait celebrates the courage, determination, and remarkable humanity of a great man and chronicles his extraordinary contribution to humankind.
Much of the story in Mandela: The Authorized Portrait is told by those whose very lives he has touched. Drawing on 60 original and extensive interviews with family members, close friends, colleagues, and many of the world's leading figures in politics and entertainment, Mandela: The Authorized Portrait tells the inspirational story of an incredible man-from his birth and early childhood in rural South Africa and his involvement with and eventual leadership of the African National Congress through his 27-year imprisonment and eventual emergence as one of the world's notable leaders and most active agents for change.
This richly designed portrait features a foreword by former U.S. president Bill Clinton and an introduction by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is illustrated with 250 images and features material taken from private collections as well as the Nelson Mandela Foundation archive-some of it published here for the first time. Mandela: The Authorized Portrait features artifacts and facsimiles of Mandela's voluminous writings and correspondence-written records of his negotiations with the prison authorities, intimate letters to his family and friends during his imprisonment, and material from Mandela's personal diaries and calendars.
Mandela: The Authorized Portrait is one of the most lavishly illustrated and comprehensive tributes to Nelson Mandela's life and work ever produced.
*Starred Review* With beautifully reproduced photographs on every double-page spread, this huge, very handsome biography is both for those who know Mandela only as a distant icon and for those familiar with his autobiography,
Long Walk to Freedom (1994), and with the history of South Africa's struggle for democracy. More than 60 world figures (including Clinton, Annan, and Bono) and antiapartheid activists (including Tutu and Kathrada) pay tribute and remember the great freedom fighter. They pair Mandela with Gandhi: in the words of Nadine Gordimer, "the two indisputably magnificent great people of the last millenium . . . unique in their incredible moral and humanistic stand." Most moving are the accounts by Mandela's fellow prisoners on Robben Island, the photos of them breaking stones in the limestone quarry, the brutal street confrontations between police and demonstrators. The facsimiles of documents in Mandela's handwriting, with his corrections, include the famous speech at his trial and the letter read by his daughter to the world, in which he refused the government's offer of conditional release. With all the praise, there are close-up accounts of sorrow and anger, including his breakup with his second wife, Winnie, his guilt about the suffering of his children, his activism on the prevention of AIDS. There's laughter, too, especially about his fashion sense. No one will read all the tributes, but the famous names and incredible photos will grab browsers, who will go on to read the stirring history by those who were there.
Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A remarkable book of photographs and text. . . the world’s coffee tables are about to get very fortunate." --
The Kansas City Star"Beautifully designed … Abundant photos, private and historical, and extensive interviews...Poignant, exhilarating book …" --
San Francisco Chronicle"It is an awesome book." --
Green Bay Press-Gazette"One of the most inspirational books of the year." --
Sacramento Bee"The narrative text by Mike Nicol is rich and nuanced, the historical documents revealing and the photographs thrilling and evocative." --
Washington Post Book Review"beautifully reproduced photographs on every double-page spread … huge, very handsome biography… " --
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