The Autobiography Of Malcolm X chronicles the life and work of one of the most influential members of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Not everyone who deserves an autobiography gets one. Some people die early, others don't think of it as important.

Often, the people we most crave an autobiography from wait until the last minute to publish one - for example, Sam Walton or Steve Jobs who published theirs shortly before their deaths.

In the case of Malcolm X, it's all the more surprising that we have one, given his assassination in 1965, when he was just 39 years old.

Lucky for historians, political activists, and for us, he'd been working on an autobiography for the two years prior to this tragic event, collaborating with journalist Alex Haley to get his story out into the world.