Page from the original typescript of Alex Haley’s 1963 interview of Malcolm X for Playboy magazine, one page, 8 x 10.5, signed in the bottom margin (with a marginal line indicating his approval of the contents), “Malcolm X.” Haley’s historic interview provided for many Americans their first in-depth look at Malcolm X’s teachings and personality, and it remains a document of primary importance in understanding the still-controversial man and his philosophies. This portion of the interview, relating to Malcolm X’s imprisonment, reads, in part: “I was seventy-seven months in three different prisons, sir. The greatest thing that happened to me in prison was it was in prison I first heard the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. His teachings were what turned me around. The first time I heard the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s statement, ‘the white man is the devil,’ from everything I had ever seen, it clicked. I am a good example of why Islam is spreading so rapidly in the prisons today…. I was nothing but another convict, a criminal, actually semi-illiterate, and Mr. Muhammad’s teachings were able to reach into the prison, which is the level where people are considered to have fallen as low as they can go. What Mr. Muhammad’s teachings did for me was bring me from behind prison walls and place me on the podiums of some of the leading colleges and universities in the country.” Matted and framed together with an unsigned photograph, a complete facsimile of the interview as printed in Playboy, and two engraved plaques to an overall size of 34 x 44. In fine condition, with faint paperclip impression. COA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA included. A most significant relic from this civil rights icon! Oversized.
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