28 must-read modern classics books like Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

Cover of Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

By: Martin Luther King Jr.

4.54

Format: 54 pages, Paperback

There is an alternate edition published under ISBN13: 9780062509550. 'Injustice anywhere is a th…

"It is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over..."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

If you liked the modern classics plot in Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. , here is a list of 28 books like this:

1. Investigations of a Dog

By: Franz Kafka

4.62

Format: None pages,

"Investigations of a Dog" (German: "Forschungen eines Hundes") is a short story by Franz Kafka writ… read more

Similar categories in Franz Kafka's Investigations of a Dog book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

Cover of Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell

2. Notes on Nationalism

By: George Orwell

4.01

Format: 52 pages, Paperback

In this essay, Orwell discusses the notion of nationalism, and argues that it causes people to disr… read more

Similar categories in George Orwell's Notes on Nationalism book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • history
  • politics
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • modern classics
"Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism."

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

"For those who feel deeply about contemporary politics, certain topics have become so infected by considerations of prestige that a genuinely rational approach to them is almost impossible."

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

"Political or military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of…"

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

"By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled…"

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

Cover of The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN) by Anaïs Nin

3. The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

By: Anaïs Nin

3.48

Format: 56 pages, Paperback

'What did she expect of him? What was her quest? Did she have an unfulfilled desire?' Transgress… read more

Similar categories in Anaïs Nin's The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN) book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
"Sometimes she answered, 'My mouth wants you, I want to feel you in my mouth, way down in my mouth.' Other times she answered, 'I am moist between the legs."

-Anaïs Nin, The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

Cover of Create Dangerously by Albert Camus

4. Create Dangerously

By: Albert Camus

3.84

Format: 58 pages, Paperback

'To create today is to create dangerously' Camus argues passionately that the artist has a respo… read more

Similar categories in Albert Camus's Create Dangerously book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • politics
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • modern classics
"Artists, like everyone else, must take up their oars without dying, if possible."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

"To paint a still life, a painter and an apple must confront and adjust to each other."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

"Perhaps there is no peace for an artist other than the peace found in the heat of combat."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

"But now the artist is in the amphitheatre. Of necessity, his voice is not quite the same; it is not nearly so firm."

-Albert Camus, Create Dangerously

Cover of Africa's Tarnished Name by Chinua Achebe

5. Africa's Tarnished Name

By: Chinua Achebe

4.40

Format: 56 pages, Paperback

He needed to hear Africa speak for itself after a lifetime of hearing Africa spoken about by others… read more

Similar categories in Chinua Achebe's Africa's Tarnished Name book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • history
  • race
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • essays
"Our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows. No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all. If we learned that lesson even this late in the day…"

-Chinua Achebe, Africa's Tarnished Name

"People are wrong when they tell you that Conrad was on the side of Africans because his story showed great compassion towards them. Africans are not really served by his compassion, whatever it means…"

-Chinua Achebe, Africa's Tarnished Name

"The poor of the world may be guilty of this and that particular fault or foolishness, but if we are fair we will admit that nothing they have done or left undone quite explains all the odds we see st…"

-Chinua Achebe, Africa's Tarnished Name

Cover of Lance by Vladimir Nabokov

6. Lance

By: Vladimir Nabokov

3.37

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'The illegible signature of teetering disaster' Three great stories—"The Aurelian", "Signs and … read more

Similar categories in Vladimir Nabokov's Lance book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
"So it went on, that obsession and that despair and that nightmarish impossibility to swindle destiny, until a certain first of April, of all dates."

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

"What I am thinking of is the man of imagination and science, whose courage is infinite because his curiosity surpasses his courage. Nothing will keep him back."

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

"I not only debar too definite a planet from any role in my story – from the role every dot and full stop should play in my story (which I see as a kind of celestial chart)."

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

"The clichés are, of course, disguised; essentially, they are the same throughout all cheap reading matter, whether it spans the universe or the living room. They are like those 'assorted' cookies tha…"

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lance

Cover of Dark Days by James Baldwin

7. Dark Days

By: James Baldwin

4.40

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

'So the club rose, the blood came down, and his bitterness and his anguish and his guilt were compo… read more

Similar categories in James Baldwin's Dark Days book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • history
  • race
  • politics
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
"A mob is not autonomous: it executes the real will of the people who rule the State."

-James Baldwin, Dark Days

"No curtain under heaven is heavier than that curtain of guilt and lies behind which white Americans hide."

-James Baldwin, Dark Days

"The question of color was but another detail, somewhere between being six feet tall and being six feet under."

-James Baldwin, Dark Days

"But the Irish became white when they got here and began rising in the world, whereas I became black and began sinking."

-James Baldwin, Dark Days

Cover of The Three Electroknights by Stanisław Lem

8. The Three Electroknights

By: Stanisław Lem

3.33

Format: 54 pages, Paperback

'What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and silver stars of ice?' From a… read more

Similar categories in Stanisław Lem's The Three Electroknights book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of Three Japanese Short Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

9. Three Japanese Short Stories

By: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

3.28

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

'Oh the cruelty of time, that destroys all things!' Beguiling, strange and hair-raising tales fr… read more

Similar categories in Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Three Japanese Short Stories book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
"Heroes have always been monsters who crushed sentimentalism underfoot."

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"Oh, but once one has returned to the land of one's birth – there is no place more constricting – one's surroundings no longer permit such freedom, and one can no longer simply transcend the demands o…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"For her I would gladly ferry across the Sumida on the coldest winter day to buy her those sakura-mochi sweets from old Edo that she loved so much. But medicine? That is another matter. Not even on th…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"No, nothing in this world is as oppressive and debilitating as blood ties. Any other relationship – be it friend, lover, wife; be it obligatory or constraining or difficult – is something one has con…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

Cover of The Vigilante by John Steinbeck

10. The Vigilante

By: John Steinbeck

3.50

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

'Everything was dead, everything unreal; the dark mob was made up of stiff lay-figures' One of A… read more

Similar categories in John Steinbeck's The Vigilante book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier

11. The Breakthrough

By: Daphne du Maurier

3.59

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

Dispatch the maimed, the old, the weak, destroy the very world itself, for what is the point of lif… read more

Similar categories in Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
"These involve programming it with a series of questions. The answers are then fed back into the computer, and are themselves used to modify the questions that follow."

-Daphne du Maurier, The Breakthrough

Cover of Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady by Clarice Lispector

12. Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady

By: Clarice Lispector

3.52

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

"The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently thro… read more

Similar categories in Clarice Lispector's Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of Fame by Andy Warhol

13. Fame

By: Andy Warhol

3.55

Format: 56 pages, Paperback

'Good b.o means good "box office." You can smell it from a mile away' The legendary sixties New … read more

Similar categories in Andy Warhol's Fame book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • nonfiction
  • modern classics
  • essays
"I really don't care that much about 'Beauties'. What I really like are Talkers."

-Andy Warhol, Fame

Cover of Piers of the Homeless Night by Jack Kerouac

14. Piers of the Homeless Night

By: Jack Kerouac

3.18

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'See my hand up-tipped, learn the secret of my human heart...'Soaring, freewheeling snapshots of li… read more

Similar categories in Jack Kerouac's Piers of the Homeless Night book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • essays
"The hobo has two watches you can't buy at Tiffany's, on one wrist the sun, on the other wrist the moon, both bands are made of sky."

-Jack Kerouac, Piers of the Homeless Night

Cover of Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

15. Letter from Birmingham Jail

By: Martin Luther King Jr.

4.54

Format: 54 pages, Paperback

There is an alternate edition published under ISBN13: 9780062509550. 'Injustice anywhere is a th… read more

Similar categories in Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • history
  • race
  • politics
  • philosophy
  • religion
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • essays
  • modern classics
"It is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over..."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily."

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Cover of The Black Ball by Ellison Ralph

16. The Black Ball

By: Ellison Ralph

3.79

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'If he only knew what it was, he would fix it; he would kill this mean thing that made Mama feel so… read more

Similar categories in Ellison Ralph's The Black Ball book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • race
Cover of The Dialogue of Two Snails (Penguin Modern) by Federico García Lorca

17. The Dialogue of Two Snails (Penguin Modern)

By: Federico García Lorca

3.33

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

My heartbrims with billowsand minnowsof shadows and silver Beautiful, brutal, strange and lovely… read more

Similar categories in Federico García Lorca's The Dialogue of Two Snails (Penguin Modern) book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
"The evening, lacking intelligent relations, crumbles down into the haze of the horizon.)"

-Federico García Lorca, The Dialogue of Two Snails (Penguin Modern)

Cover of The Skeleton’s Holiday by Leonora Carrington

18. The Skeleton’s Holiday

By: Leonora Carrington

3.66

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we'll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I'll wear h… read more

Similar categories in Leonora Carrington's The Skeleton’s Holiday book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
"The hyena found it difficult to walk in my high-heeled shoes."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"The skeleton was as happy as a madman whose straitjacket had been taken off."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we'll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I'll wear her face tonight instead of mine."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"The skeleton's lodgings had an ancient head and modern feet. The ceiling was the sky, the floor the earth. It was painted white and decorated with snowballs in which a heart beat. He looked like a tr…"

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

Cover of Food by Gertrude Stein

19. Food

By: Gertrude Stein

1.96

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

Sadder than salad. From apples to artichokes, these glittering, fragmented, painterly portraits … read more

Similar categories in Gertrude Stein's Food book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • nonfiction
  • modern classics
  • essays
Cover of New York City in 1979 by Kathy Acker

20. New York City in 1979

By: Kathy Acker

3.11

Format: 47 pages, Paperback

"It is necessary to go to as many extremes as possible." A tale of art, sex, blood, junkies and … read more

Similar categories in Kathy Acker's New York City in 1979 book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • essays
"Intense sexual desire is the best thing in the world."

-Kathy Acker, New York City in 1979

"The two main girlfriends he has had wanted him to support them in the manner to which they certainly weren't accustomed even though he couldn't put his flabby hands on a penny."

-Kathy Acker, New York City in 1979

"old people have to go to children's or most often to rest homes where they are shunted into wheelchairs and made as fast as possible into zombies cause it's easier to handle a zombie, if you have to …"

-Kathy Acker, New York City in 1979

Cover of The Finger by William S. Burroughs

21. The Finger

By: William S. Burroughs

3.31

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'He felt a sudden deep pity for the finger joint that lay there on the dresser, a few drops of bloo… read more

Similar categories in William S. Burroughs's The Finger book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson

22. The Missing Girl

By: Shirley Jackson

3.55

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

' "Of course, no one would want to say anything about a girl like this that's missing..." ' Mali… read more

Similar categories in Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of I Have More Souls Than One by Fernando Pessoa

23. I Have More Souls Than One

By: Fernando Pessoa

3.96

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'But no, she's abstract, is a birdOf sound in the air of air soaring,And her soul sings unencumbere… read more

Similar categories in Fernando Pessoa's I Have More Souls Than One book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • philosophy
  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Death Chamber by Allen Ginsberg

24. Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Death Chamber

By: Allen Ginsberg

2.84

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering. read more

Similar categories in Allen Ginsberg's Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Death Chamber book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker

25. The Custard Heart

By: Dorothy Parker

3.68

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

'She felt a cozy solidarity with the big company of the voluntary dead.' Wise-cracking and heart… read more

Similar categories in Dorothy Parker's The Custard Heart book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of The Duke in His Domain by Truman Capote

26. The Duke in His Domain

By: Truman Capote

3.80

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

Now Brando looked at people with assurance, and with what can only be called a pitying expression, … read more

Similar categories in Truman Capote's The Duke in His Domain book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • nonfiction
  • modern classics
  • essays
Cover of The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern) by Patrick Kavanagh

27. The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern)

By: Patrick Kavanagh

3.48

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'I have lived in important places, times When great events were decided . . .' By turns comical… read more

Similar categories in Patrick Kavanagh's The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern) book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern) by Danilo Kiš

28. The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern)

By: Danilo Kiš

2.93

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'For once there had been false idols and asses' heads drawn on the walls...' Sleepers awake in … read more

Similar categories in Danilo Kiš's The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern) book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
Cover of An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern) by Ryszard Kapuściński

29. An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern)

By: Ryszard Kapuściński

3.61

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'Like rotting stakes in a forest clearing' The great journalist of conflict in the Third World … read more

Similar categories in Ryszard Kapuściński's An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern) book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • modern classics
Cover of Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer by Wendell Berry

30. Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer

By: Wendell Berry

3.68

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'Do I wish to keep up with the times? No. My wish simply is to live my life as fully as I can' T… read more

Similar categories in Wendell Berry's Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • modern classics
"I am not an optimist; I am afraid that I won't live long enough to escape my bondage to the machines."

-Wendell Berry, Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer

"How, I am asking, can women improve themselves by submitting to the same specialization, degradation, trivialization, and tyrannization of work that men have submitted to? And that question is made l…"

-Wendell Berry, Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer

"And yet language is the most intimately physical of all the artistic means. We have it palpably in our mouths; it is our langue, our tongue. Writing it, we shape it with our hands. Reading aloud what…"

-Wendell Berry, Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer

"If you are already solving your problem with the equipment you have - a pencil, say- why solve it with something more expensive and more damaging? If you don't have a problem, why pay for a solution?…"

-Wendell Berry, Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer

Cover of Till September Petronella by Jean Rhys

31. Till September Petronella

By: Jean Rhys

3.39

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'I knew he was imagining a really lovely girl—all curves, curls, heart and hidden claws' In stor… read more

Similar categories in Jean Rhys's Till September Petronella book and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • classics
  • modern classics
"We sat under the mango tree and I was holding his hand when he began to cry. Drops fell on my hand like the water from the dripstone in the filter in our yard. Then I began to cry too and when I felt…"

-Jean Rhys, Till September Petronella

30 Best classics books like Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

Transform Your Habits

Notes on Nationalism

George Orwell

4.01

Transform Your Habits

The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

Anaïs Nin

3.48

Transform Your Habits

Create Dangerously

Albert Camus

3.84

Transform Your Habits

Africa's Tarnished Name

Chinua Achebe

4.40

View all the books

16 must-read fiction books like The Three Electroknights by Stanisław Lem

Transform Your Habits

The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

Anaïs Nin

3.48

Transform Your Habits

The Three Electroknights

Stanisław Lem

3.33

Transform Your Habits

Three Japanese Short Stories

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

3.28

Transform Your Habits

The Vigilante

John Steinbeck

3.50

View all the books

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