SOURCE: "Malcolm, the Aardvark and Me," in New York Times Book Review, February 21, 1993, p. 11.

In the following essay, Gates relates his persona! experience of reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a young man.

One of the most gratifying effects of Spike Lee's film Malcolm X is that its success has prompted the restoration of Malcolm's autobiography to the best-seller lists. The country is reading the 1965 book once again, as avidly, it seems, as it is seeing Mr. Lee's movie. For 17 weeks The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with the assistance of Alex Haley, has been on the New York Times paperback best-seller list, and for 10 of those weeks it was No. 1. Today, on the 28th anniversary of his assassination. Malcolm's story has become as American—to borrow H. Rap Brown's famous aphorism—as violence and cherry pie.

Malcolm first came into my life some three decades ago...