Alex Haley Biography
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Alexander Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 -
February 10, 1992) was an African American writer (though he was also
proud of his Irish and Cherokee ancestry). He is best known for his book
Roots: The Saga of an American Family.
****
Life
Born in Ithaca, New York, Haley grew up in
the Southern U.S. and served in the Coast Guard on May 24, 1939. He
enlisted as a Seaman and then became a third class Petty Officer in the
rate of Mess Attendant, one of the only enlisted designators open to
African Americans at that time.
After World War II, Haley was able to
petition the Coast Guard to allow him to cross rate into the field of
journalism, and by 1949 he had become a First Class Petty Officer in the
rate of Journalist. He later advanced to the rank of Chief Petty Officer
and held this grade until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959.
Alex Haley's awards and decorations from
the Coast Guard include the American Defense Service Medal (w/"Sea"
clasp), American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal,
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory
Medal, Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal (w/1 silver and 1 bronze service
star), Korean Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, United
Nations Service Medal, and the Coast Guard Expert Marksmanship Medal.
Haley is also entitled to the Korean War
Service Medal, but never received this decoration in his lifetime as it
was retroactively issued ten years after his death.
After the retirement he became a senior
editor for Reader's Digest. He is also noted for having done several
interviews for Playboy Magazine in the US: most famously with American
Nazi Party figurehead George Lincoln Rockwell.
In 1965 Haley wrote The Autobiography of
Malcolm X, based on interviews conducted shortly before Malcolm's death
(and with an epilogue for after it). The book was published in 1972 and
had a huge success, being later Alex Haleyd by Time magazine one of the ten
most important nonfiction books of the 20th century.
In 1976 Haley published Roots, a
fictionalized account of his family's history, starting with the story
of Kunta Kinte, kidnapped in Gambia in 1767 to be sold as a slave in
North America. Roots won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to become a
popular television miniseries. The book and film were both successful,
reaching a record-breaking 130 million viewers when it was serialized on
television. Roots emphasized that African Americans also have a long
history and that not all of that history is lost, as many believed. Its
popularity sparked an increased public interest in genealogy, as well.
In the late 1980s, Haley began working on a
second historical novel based on another branch of his family, traced
through his grandmother Queen - the daughter of a black slave woman and
her white master. Haley died before he could complete the story; at his
request, it was finished by David Stevens and was published as Alex
Haley's Queen. It was subsequently made into a movie in 1993.
Plagiarism Controversy
Alex Haley researched Roots for 12 years;
the Roots TV series adaptation aired in 1977. The same year, Haley won a
Pulitzer Prize for the book and the Spingarn Medal as well. Haley's fame
was marred by plagiarism charges, and after a trial, he was permitted to
settle out-of-court for $650,000, having admitted that he copied large
passages of Roots from The African by Harold Courlander. In 1988
Margaret Walker also sued him, claiming Roots violated the copyright for
her novel Jubilee. The case was dismissed by the court. Reportedly he
paid her a civil judgement of $650,000 for plagiarism.
Haley's work is controversial for other
reasons. He has been accused of fictionalising true stories in both his
book Roots and The Autobiography Of Malcolm X. X's family and members of
The Nation of Islam accused Haley of changing selected parts of his
story.
In 1999, the U.S. Coast Guard honored Haley
by naming the cutter Alex Haley after him.
Books
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
(1976)
A Different Kind of Christmas (1988)
Alex Haley's Queen: The Story of an
American Family (1993) (completed by David Stevens after Haley's death)
Mama Flora's Family (1998) (completed by
David Stevens after Haley's death)
****
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URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Haley
Date Article Copied:
September 15, 2005
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