“I Have a Dream” draft

From The New York Times (gift link), news of a handwritten draft of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech:

King’s draft had long been assumed to have been discarded. But more than six decades later, it has surfaced from a desk drawer of a former aide, Edward T. Clayton, and will be auctioned at Christie’s in January.

The auction house said it expected the document — the only handwritten final draft of the speech known to survive — to fetch more than $10 million. The proceeds will benefit the King Center in Atlanta and other philanthropic causes chosen by the consignor, the aide’s widow, Xernona Clayton.

Spread across a table at Christie’s offices in Manhattan last month, the document looked unassuming — just seven pages filled with blue ink and the rusted ghost of a paper clip in the upper left corner. But the $10 million-plus price, if reached, would put it in a stratosphere associated with rare copies of the nation’s founding documents.

Peter Klarnet, Christie’s manuscript specialist, said that when he first saw it, his jaw hit the table.

“This is the most important manuscript I’ve ever had the honor to handle,” he said. “I can’t imagine anything better.” He paused, before adding: “That I wouldn’t have to steal out of the National Archives.”

Drafts are tremendously useful for anyone teaching a course in writing: evidence that writing doesn’t just, as they say, “flow.” The page and partial page visible in the Times article would make useful exhibits for their sheer volume of crossouts.

As the Times notes, the draft does not contain the words “I have a dream.” Everyone should know the role Mahalia Jackson played in getting that part of the speech spoken.