Alex Haley

By David J. Reno from the Alliance of Independent Scholars

On March 6, 1992, Alex Haley was reunited with the ancestors he wrote about in Roots. His death ended a career in which he contributed two of the most significant books on African-Americans in the post-war era: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1966), and Roots (1975).

Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, on August 11, 1921. His inspiration for Roots came from listening to stories about his mother's parents, who lived in Hemming, Tennessee, a small town about fifty miles north of Memphis. The stories Haley heard inspired his search for his ancestors, his roots.

Haley was the eldest of three sons. His father was a college professor, and his mother taught grammar school. These strong parental examples helped young Haley finish high school at the early age of 15. After two years of college, he enlisted in 1939 as a messboy in the U. S. Coast Guard and served as a ship's cook in the Southwest Pacific.

"At Dad's insistence I'd learned to type in high school," Haley later recounted, "and my most precious shipboard possession was an army portable typewriter. I wrote letters to everyone I could think of and I read every book in the ship's small library. From boyhood... I'd loved reading, especially stories of adventure. I decided to start writing some stories myself. The idea that one could roll a blank sheet of paper into a typewriter and write something on it that other people would care to read challenged, intrigued, exhilarated me."

For eight years editors rejected hundreds of his manuscripts before finally occasional ones began to be accepted. In 1952 the coast Guard created a new rating for Haley: Chief Journalist. While assisting the handling of Coast Guard public relations, he continued his self-taught efforts to improve his writing.

After retiring from the Coast Guard in 1959, where he had spent 20 years in military service, Haley went on to pursue a freelance writing career. He wrote mostly on headline-newsmaking personalities for popular magazines of the period. In September 1962 Haley made magazine history by choosing Miles Davis for the first subject of "The Playboy Interview." Haley devised the format for what was to become a tradition. When the article he was writing didn't work he suggested that Playboy try the material in the form of an interview. Since then Playboy has published three volumes of "The Playboy Interview".

Haley went on to interview such outstanding figures as Martin Luther King Jr.,the infamous Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell, and Malcolm X, who did not expect that his comments would be printed in a white magazine. When they were, Haley received an offer from Grove Press to collaborate with him on a biography. The result was The Autobiography of Malcolm X .

During this collaboration Malcolm X explained why he discarded his last name "Little" and renamed himself X. Malcolm Little was a slave name. He didn't know his real African name. It had been lost in the years of slavery and oppression. His personal history, his family tree, his real name were all but a complete mystery to him. Where in Africa had his family come from he didn't know? And until he could find out he would carry the name X. Haley had heard many stories of his own family's past that stretched back two centuries and had covered his family history from before slavery. The observation from Malcolm X about wanting to know one's own personal history inspired Haley to use the profits from the book to research his own past.

The long ordeal of researching his mother's side of the family took Haley back across some two hundred years and six generations. His search led him to such sources as the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Professor Jan Vansina, author of La History Orale, found from the pronunciation of words used by Haley's ancestors that they had originated in Gambia. Lloyd's of London helped with maritime history, and the Maryland Historical Society with shipping and cargo schedules.

Finally, through the oral histories of Africa's historians, the Girots, he determined that his fourth great grandfather was Kunta Kinte, a youth from Gambia, West Africa, who in 1767 was kidnapped and brought to the United States as a slave. The result of this research, Roots, the book, became the biggest best-seller in U. S. publishing history. Translated into over thirty languages, it has sold more than six million copies worldwide in hardcover alone.

The twelve-hour television miniseries filmed from the book was also phenomenally successful. Its seven-night run in January 1977 drew over 130 million viewers, the largest audience to date in televison history. During the television presentation bars noticed a drop in business because so many of their patrons were watching the show. The show also caused a surge in research into genealogy. After the series aired an entire generation of students suddenly discovered the world didn't begin when they were born.

In 1977 Haley won a special Pulitzer Prize for Roots, as well as the National Book Award. Colleges and universities have bestowed on him over twenty honorary doctorate degrees, and he has received over 300 special recognitions from other sources, including the U.S. Senate and the U. S. Congress. Time magazine has labeled Haley a "Folk Hero" and his book a "Cultural Landmark," while Reader's Digest called him "one of the master storytellers of our time."

The world-renowned author divided his residence between his 120-acre farm near Norris, Tennessee, and his condominium in Knoxville. But he did most of his writing on cargo ships at sea. Once, long before his success, he was tempted at one point to commit suicide at sea because he was depressed by what appeared to an apparent failure. He had run out of money and had not been able to finish the book. But as he was beginning to jump from the deck of the ship he was traveling on, he heard what he said was the voices of all of his ancestors calling out to him, telling him not to quit-that they had made great sacrifices for him so he could tell their story to nations, and generations to come. Indeed we are enriched by their voices and his persistence. Thank you Alex Haley. Thank you for presisting. Your history is now apart of our history.

Haley's Comet:

The Roots of America

Alex Haley - During this collaboration Malcolm X explained why he discarded his last name "Little" and renamed himself X. Malcolm Little was a slave name. He didn't know his real African name. It had been lost in the years of slavery and oppression. His personal history, his family tree, his real name were all but a complete mystery to him. Where in Africa had his family come from he didn't know? And until he could find out he would carry the name X.

Haley had heard many stories of his own family's past that stretched back two centuries and had covered his family history from before slavery. The observation from Malcolm X about wanting to know one's own personal history inspired Haley to use the profits from the book to research his own past.

Alex Haley - The result of this research, Roots, the book, became the biggest best-seller in U. S. publishing history. Translated into over thirty languages, it has sold more than six million copies worldwide in hardcover alone.