Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories

New York: Putnam, 1994. First edition. Hardcover. fine/fine. First edition, first printing with correct number line begining with "1". A fine, fresh, apparently unread copy, very small light spot upper outer edge of the text block. In equally fine dust jacket. Hardcover. 320 pp. with index. Illustrated with photos. Autobiography of actor and later important figure in the NASA space program Nichelle Nichols (1932-2022). A native of a suburban Chicago town, Nichols became one of the groundbreaking African-American actresses on television when she was cast in the role of Lt. Uhura, communications officer of the starship Enterprise in the original Star Trek series. Toward the end of the show's first season, she was offered a Broadway role and had decided to take it but met Martin Luther King, Jr. at a function; Dr. King (a fan, as it turned out, of Star Trek) told her of the importance of her TV role to the African-American cause and of her example to Black children. In a November, 1968 episode, "Plato's Children", she and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) shared a kiss, the first instance of an interracial kiss on television. Nichols would go on to reprise her Uhura role in Star Trek animated features and in Star Trek movies. After cancellation of the original show, she volunteered with NASA to recruit minority and female personnel for the agency.