Haley, Alex (Vol. 12) - Introduction

Alex Haley 1921–

Black American journalist, essayist, and historical novelist. Haley is best known for Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a "literary-television" sociological phenomenon which vaulted him into celebrity status during the late 1970s. It is a fictionalized account of seven generations of his own family based on twelve years of research in Africa, Europe, and America. The story of slave Kunta Kinte and his descendants has become almost legendary, and has spawned an intense interest in genealogy and a pride in black ancestry. By personalizing the Afro-American experience, Haley has universalized it. He first became known for his thoughtful collaboration on The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a powerful portrait of this controversial leader and his espousal of and final disenchantment with the Black Muslim movement. Haley has been given the credit for gaining the confidence of Malcolm X and for giving the book its final shape. He first decided to research his own story after retiring from the Coast Guard as chief journalist and spending several years as interviewer and magazine writer. The book Roots was well-received by critics and was awarded special citations from the National Book Awards Committee and the Pulitzer Prize Committee, but it was not until its adaptation was televised that its full influence was realized. Haley did not have the final approval of the script for Roots and he feels that it did not accurately represent his viewpoint. However, he served as consultant for the second television series, Roots: The Next Generations. This is a continuation of the saga of his family as they became caught up in the black struggle for equality following the Civil War and deals particularly with his own efforts to retrace his lineage. Haley has been criticized for his idealization of history, for his stilted and artificial dialogue, for reverse racism, and for factual errors. He was recently charged with plagiarism but settled out of court. Haley calls his story "faction," neither fact nor fiction, and it is this dual nature which saves it from being a romantic melodrama or a scholarly treatise and seems to give it its power. (See also CLC, Vol. 8, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 77-80.)