CORETTA SCOTT KING

In the ``Contemporary Women'' series, a sympathetic but uninvolving account of the life and work of a woman who gave up her own career to further her husband's dreams—and continues to pursue them 24 years after his death. In an odd mix of a stilted formal style and studied informality (they refer to King as ``Corrie''), the authors paint a broad yet shallow portrait, chronicling major events, including changes of leadership at the King Center for Nonviolence, but giving few of the details that would stimulate interest. Giving sources for only a few of several direct and indirect quotes, they attribute to King many thoughts that could only have come from her autobiography, My Life With Martin Luther King, Jr. (e.g., ``It seemed to Coretta as if she had been waiting for this call [telling of her husband's death] for years''). Throughout, they emphasize King's personal growth from housewife dissatisfied with her lack of public role to unofficial stateswoman, speculating that ``she may have felt partly justified in her new role by the growing acceptance of the women's rights movement.'' Chronology; bibliography; index. B&w photos not seen. (Biography. 12- 16)