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Alex Haley Biography (1921–1992) (601 hits)


Alex Haley Biography (1921–1992)

Alex Haley was a writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted generations of African American lives. He is widely known for 'Roots' and 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X.'
Who Was Alex Haley?
Alex Haley served in the U.S. Coast Guard for two decades before pursuing a career as a writer. He eventually helmed a series of interviews for Playboy magazine and later co-authored The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The following decade, Haley made history with his book Roots, chronicling his family line from Gambia to the enslaved-holding South. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book was turned into a 1977 miniseries that became one of the most popular TV shows of all time. Major controversy ensued, however, when Haley was accused of plagiarism and presenting historical and genealogical inaccuracies. Nonetheless, Roots has remained a groundbreaking work in the public imagination.

Early Life
Haley was born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley on August 11, 1921, in Ithaca, New York. At the time of his birth, Haley's father, Simon, a World War I veteran, was a graduate student in agriculture at Cornell University, and his mother, Bertha, was a musician and teacher.

For the first years of his life, Haley, who was called Palmer during childhood, lived with his grandparents Cynthia and Will in Henning, Tennessee, while his father finished his studies. Upon Will's death, Haley's parents returned to Tennessee where Simon procured work at Lane College. Haley was proud of his father, whom he said had overcome the immense obstacles of racism to achieve high levels of success and provide better opportunities for his children.

Haley graduated from high school at the age of 15 and enrolled at Alcorn A&M College (Alcorn State University) in Mississippi. After one year at Alcorn, he transferred to Elizabeth City State Teachers College in North Carolina. Haley had a difficult time at school, much to the harsh consternation of his father.

Writing for the Coast Guard
In 1939, Haley quit school to join the Coast Guard. Although he enlisted as a seaman, he was made to toil in the inglorious role of mess attendant. To relieve his boredom while on the ship, Haley bought a portable typewriter and typed out love letters for his less articulate friends. He also wrote short stories and articles and sent them to magazines and publishers back in the United States. Although he received mostly rejection letters in return, a handful of his stories were published, encouraging Haley to keep writing.

At the conclusion of World War II, the Coast Guard permitted Haley to transfer into the field of journalism, and by 1949 he had achieved the rank of first class petty officer in the rate of journalist. Haley was soon promoted to chief journalist of the Coast Guard, a rank he held until his retirement in 1959, after 20 years of service. Haley ultimately received a number of military honors, including the American Defense Service Medal, World War II Victory Medal and an honorary degree from the Coast Guard Academy. A Coast Guard cutter was also named in the journalist's honor: the USCGC Alex Haley.

'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'
Upon retiring from the Coast Guard in 1959, Haley set out to make it as a freelance writer. Although he published many articles during these years, the pay was barely enough to make ends meet.

In 1962, Haley got his big break when an interview he conducted with famous trumpeter Miles Davis was published in Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine. The story was such a success that Haley embarked on a series of write-ups for the publication that would eventually be known as "The Playboy Interviews," in which he talked to such prominent African American figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Leontyne Price, Sammy Davis Jr., Quincy Jones and Malcolm X.

After concluding his 1963 interview with Malcolm X, Haley asked the civil rights leader if he could write a book on his life. The result, two years later, was The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A seminal book of the civil rights movement as well as an international best-seller, the project memorialized for eternity the life of Malcolm X — who was murdered before the book was finished — while transforming Haley, his collaborator, into a celebrated writer.

'Roots'
In the aftermath of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, writing and lecturing offers for Haley began pouring in, and he could have easily lived out his lifelong dream of being a successful independent scribe. Instead, Haley embarked on a hugely ambitious new project to trace and retell the story of his ancestors' journey from Africa to America as enslaved people, and then their rise from slavery to freedom. During a decade of research on three continents, Haley examined enslaved ship records at archives in the United States and England and traveled to Gambia, the believed home of his ancestors in West Africa.

In his ancestral village of Juffure, Haley listened to a tribal historian recount how Kunta Kinte, Haley's ancestor and the protagonist of his book, was captured and sold into slavery. Still, despite his meticulous research, Haley often despaired that he could never recapture the true spirit of his ancestors. He recalled in a 1977 Ebony magazine interview, "I asked myself, what right had I to be sitting in a carpeted high-rise apartment writing about what it was like in the hold of a slave ship?"

In an attempt to answer this question, he booked passage on a ship from Liberia to America and spent his nights lying on a board in the hold of the ship in nothing but his underwear. When Haley finally published Roots in 1976 — in what would later be seen as part-fictionalized story, part-richly detailed historical account — the book caused a national sensation and went on to sell millions of copies.
Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Saturday, February 27th 2021 at 9:36AM
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