WW Norton imprint Liveright Publishing has acquired the rights to publish the “authorised and authentic” collection of Nelson Mandela’s prison letters.

The letters – many of which have never before been seen by the public – span the 27 years he was held as a political prisoner. They have been assembled from the collections held by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the South African National Archives, and the Mandela family.

Liveright will publish the letters in two editions: the first will be one volume containing 250 selected letters, timed for the centenary of Mandela’s birth in July 2018; the second, a two-volume collection geared more toward scholars and other specialists, is expected to follow in 2019.

The book will include a foreword by Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela, granddaughter of Nelson Mandela.

The Bookseller reports:

“The volume covers every aspect of life behind bars for the future South African leader, whose voice the apartheid government attempted to stifle at every possible opportunity”, the publisher said. “Thus forming a new autobiographical vision, the letters provide new insight into how Mandela maintained his inner spirits while living in almost complete isolation, and how he engaged with an outside world that became increasingly outraged by his plight as his imprisonment dragged into its four decade.”

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Categories International Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Nelson Mandela WW Norton