2 Martin Luther King Jr. first editions are documented on this shelf, from Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958) to Why We Can't Wait (1964) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Martin Luther King Jr. title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Martin Luther King Jr. copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story — 1958 · Harper & BrothersHarper & Brothers, New York, 1958. The first printing carries the Harper letter-code cipher H-H on the copyright page, denoting the first printing under Harper's month-year code system. First-state dust jacket is priced on the front flap. This was King's first book. US Harper & Brothers (New York) is the true first. Later printings carry a different Harper code (for example I-H on the second printing); the H-H code is the first-printing point. Book-club issues lack the jacket price.
Why We Can't Wait — 1964 · Harper & Row, New YorkTrue first is Harper & Row, New York, 1964. Decisive point: the copyright page reads 'FIRST EDITION' AND carries the Harper letter-code 'D-O' (D = April, O = 1964), fixing the April 1964 first printing. Original half black cloth with gilt-stamped spine, Harper's torch device and '1817' on the binding; octavo, 178 pp, deckled fore-edge; eight pages of black-and-white photogravures; in a priced dust jacket (price…. Harper & Row, New York, 1964 is the recognised true first and the collected first — identify it by the stated 'FIRST EDITION' plus the 'D-O' Harper printing code (D = April, O = 1964). Later Harper printings carry different month/year codes or drop the 'First Edition' line; the census note's US-first standing holds. No book-club edition is the first. Distinguish the first printing from later Harper printings strictly by the copyright-page 'First Edition' statement and the 'D-O' code; publisher's review copies exist but share the first-printing points.

More Nonfiction & Memoir shelves: Mary Roach, Michael Faraday, Octavio Paz, Oliver Sacks, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Primo Levi.

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