New York: Seven Stories Press, (2000). Hardcover first edition - The second book by this former Black Panther, activist and radio journalist written while he was still on death row for the murder of a police officer (an action he has steadfastly denied and a sentence which was commuted to life imprisonment in 2001). This includes 79 essays by Abu-Jamal, edited and with an introduction by Noelle Hanrahan and a foreword by Alice Walker. Abu-Jamal was engaged by National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered' program to deliver a series of monthly three-minute commentaries on crime and punishment, but this was canceled following condemnations from the Fraternal Order of Police and others. Tipped onto the front endpaper is a sleeve holding a cd with 19 of his recorded essays and comments by literary figures and activists- including Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Dorothy Allison, Adrienne Rich, John Edgar Wideman annd others - who support Mumia. Illustrated with a frontispiece photograph and drawings. 303 pp. ISBN: 1-583220224.

New York: The Viking Press, (1983.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The true first edition of this detailed examination of the American Indian Movement and the shoot-out with the FBI near Wounded Knee in 1975, which resulted in the death of one Indian and two agents, and the incarceration of native American activist Leonard Peltier. This book also gives a history of the years of struggle between the Lakota Indians and the US government, as well as discussing the traditional Indian beliefs of the sacred inviolability of the earth, and it examines how the expansion of mining onto Indian treaty land might have affected events. Finally, Matthiessen presents new evidence supporting Peltier's claims of innocence, arguing for a new trial. While the dust jacket refers to this book as controversial, I don't think the publisher realized how controversial it would be: as the result of lawsuits, it was suppressed and pulled from shelves and only finally reissued eight years later in 1991,after one of the most protracted and bitterly fought legal cases in publishing history. SIGNED on the title page. Three maps, notes, index. xli, 628 pp. ISBN: 0-670-397024.