Author grew up as Southern 'white boy' fascinated by King

Taylor Branch has a name you sort of wish you had been born with. It just sounds like an A-list, hugely successful author.

Branch wrote the amazing trilogy "America in the Days of Martin Luther King" and the third volume is now out, titled "At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68." And it's packed with history.

It seems even more relevant this week with the passing of King's wife and valiant supporter, Coretta Scott King.

Like most writers, Branch started out slowly. In the 1970s, he was ghostwriting books, such as "Blind Ambition" for John Dean, the Watergate figure with the perfect memory. He also wrote a book for Boston Celtics star basketball player Bill Russell.

Branch was told it would be helpful for the would-be novelist to use the voices of different people. "So to write in the voice of Russell, a 6-foot-10 black man would very good practice for me to write in the voices of wildly different characters," he said by phone from a New York hotel room during an exhausting book-promotion tour.

His home is in Baltimore, but Branch was born in Atlanta, where he grew up to become the Southern white boy who would become fascinated with King's story. He did try a novel first, "Empire Blues," which Branch calls "a sort of an early 'Miami Vice' based on my experience in Miami covering the underworld of CIA assassinations for Harper's Magazine. The book got good reviews, but it sold only about 2,000 copies."

When he began his research on King, Branch didn't realize it would result in three volumes and take so many years of his life. "I can't quite believe it's over. I consider myself privileged to be this engrossed for 24 years in a project that kept on giving. I feel a little giddy and lost at the same time. The lessons from the book feel very contemporary to me. This is not just dusty history."

From beginning to end, the King project never stopped presenting Branch with surprises. "I was surprised by Landes County, Ala., the original home of the Black Panthers. I was captivated by the people I met there and surprised at how rapidly they could change — in one year — with the courage to vote and offer themselves as candidates."