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The Essential Dick Gregory
The Essential Dick Gregory
The Essential Dick Gregory
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The Essential Dick Gregory

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A soulful, generation-defining collection of thought-provoking, agitating, and liberating works from Dick Gregory, the activist and author of sixteen books, including the classic bestseller Nigger: An Autobiography and the 2017 NAACP Image Award Winner, Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies.

A true renaissance man, Richard Claxton “Dick” Gregory was one of the pioneering satirists of his generation, a reformer and brilliant spokesperson for the downtrodden and forgotten who dedicated his life to speaking unadulterated truth—and to improving ordinary lives. A revered human rights and environmental activist, fearsome and uncompromising social critic, lauded bestselling author, and beloved nutrition guru, Gregory aimed not only to educate souls, but to liberate them. His words shaped a generation and remain vital for our own turbulent times, offering wisdom to enlighten and inspire a new activist age.

This carefully curated anthology of selected writings reflects and celebrates Dick Gregory’s wisdom and his vision. Divided into three sections—Body, Mind, and Spirit—it includes previously unavailable transcriptions and excerpts taken from his sixteen books, fifteen albums and audio compilations, and more than 1,200 hours of archival video, including lectures, interviews, and comedic performances. It is a breathtaking tour through the life of one of America’s most prophetic and relevant cultural icons. The Essential Dick Gregory is a pointillistic portrait of a man who gave up a lucrative entertainment career to fight injustice on the front line of battle—leading protests and hunger strikes to end the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa; supporting civil rights, feminism, and Native Americans,; and addressing hunger, poverty, and police brutality.

This compelling volume will challenge your beliefs, allow you to see life in unexpected ways, and dare you to make the world a better place.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateOct 11, 2022
ISBN9780062879226
Author

Leo McKinstry

Leo McKinstry writes regularly for the Daily Mail, the Sunday Telegraph and the Spectator magazine on a wide range of subjects. Born in Belfast in 1962, he is a graduate of Cambridge University. He has authored several books on current affairs and two major sports biographies, including the critically acclaimed story of the Charlton brothers, Jack and Bobby, which won the WHSmith Sports Book of the Year Award in 2003.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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    The Essential Dick Gregory is an absolute gem, combining various works of his to tell his life story as well as his ideas and beliefs. A remarkable man in his own words.While the book is organized in a rough thematic form, it is also largely chronological, so it is as much a memoir as it is a collection of his work. What makes this especially strong is that the excerpts and complete shorter works are from various periods of his life. While other memoirs generally consist of a person reflecting and, to a large extent, smoothing the rough edges of their life, these are Gregory's words at those moments of time or at least much closer to them.I'm not sure he would have wanted to "smooth" his story even if he had written this as a single work, part of what is so amazing about him was his ability to grasp so much even in the moment. My memories of him are largely from TV when I was young and a couple of albums. Later I became aware of the breadth of his activism through interviews and yet more reading.One of the many things in the book that speak to our current environment as much as it did at the time (1973, in a monologue about Watergate): "anytime you get people that's in control of a nation, any nation, that talk about law and order and never talk about justice, there is a Watergate somewhere close by." He recognized then that "law and order" is a dog whistle, and under the recent orange menace the dogs came out of the darkness and are trying to destroy what democracy we do have.I would highly recommend this to those who like memoirs as well as those who like to read about truly inspiring people. Gregory almost always saw things from a very considered and intentional perspective. Will you agree, from this much later date, with everything he said? Probably not. But you will be hard pressed to find any kind of malice in his opinions.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

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The Essential Dick Gregory - Leo McKinstry

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