"I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, and a thousand indignities produced in me an anger, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people."
--Nelson Mandela

   In the last century's struggle for equal treatment of all peoples, three names stand out: Mohandas K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela. All three sought justice without recrimination for past wrongs. In some ways Nelson Mandela, the most recent of the three, is the least known.

   Mandela, an Illustrated Autobiography is a cut down version of Mandela's 600 page memoir Long Walk to Freedom. Two hundred photographs added to Mandela's words make this book the easiest place for many readers to learn about this extraordinary figure.

   Nelson Mandela has a storyteller's gift for narrative. Beginning with his account of his life as a simple village lad, the child of his father's third wife, his words have an easy flow culminating in his ascension to the presidency of South Africa.

   Along the way he describes joining the African National Conference, his struggles as a lawyer, strikes and acts of resistance, his treason trial, and finally and most movingly, the 27 years he spent as a prisoner.

   To his inauguration, Nelson Mandela even invited his former prison guards. His life has become a testament to the equality of all human beings, no matter what the circumstances of their birth.

From Mandela, an Illustrated Autobiography:

"Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.

"Let the efforts of us all, prove that he was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold." --Nelson Mandela, accepting the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.