The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela

"Arrested in 1962 as South Africa’s apartheid regime intensified … forty-four-year-old lawyer and African National Congress activist Nelson Mandela had no idea that he would spend the next twenty-seven years in jail. During his 10,052 days of incarceration, [he] … wrote a multitude of letters to unyielding prison authorities, fellow activists, government officials, and … his courageous wife Winnie and his five children. Now, 255 of these letters, many of which have never been published, provide … 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"—