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Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992)[1] was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of African American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.[3]
Haley's first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader.[4][5][6]
He was working on a second family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as Queen: The Story of an American Family. It was adapted as a film, Alex Haley's Queen, released in 1992.
Haley's first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader.[4][5][6]
He was working on a second family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as Queen: The Story of an American Family. It was adapted as a film, Alex Haley's Queen, released in 1992.
Alex Haley - Wikipedia
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Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The...
Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that August 11 is the anniversary of the birth of WWII US Coast Guard veteran Chief Journalist and American writer Alexander Murray Palmer Haley.
Background from
CGC Alex Haley History
Alex P. Haley
Chief Journalist Alex P. Haley 1921-1992
Born in Ithaca, New York on August 11, 1921, Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was the oldest of four children. He enrolled at Alcorn State University at the age of 15 and enrolled at Elizabeth City State College a year later. After withdrawing from college and much to the urging of his father, Haley enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. On May 24, 1939, he started his 20-year career beginning as a mess attendant.
While serving at sea onboard the Cutters MENDOTA and MURZIM in the Pacific Theater of War during World War II, Haley taught himself the art of letter writing. He would send out approximately 40 letters a week and receive nearly as many. Other sailors began to notice his talents and would pay him to write love letters for their girlfriends. He also practiced the art of story writing. Serving onboard Cutters at sea, Haley would put to paper the sea stories of old, salty sailors.
After the War, Haley pursued his interest in writing and requested that the Coast Guard let him transfer to the journalist rating. While the rating had not yet existed, the Coast Guard recognized his talents and made him the first chief journalist. Until retiring, he served as the permanent assistant to the Public Relations Officer at Coast Guard Headquarters. In 1959 he retired at the rank of chief petty officer with a long list of awards and decorations from his time serving in WWII and the Korean War.
After the Coast Guard, Haley continued to write and hone his journalism skills. He penned the worldwide bestseller Roots, which received the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was based on Haley's extensive conversations with the famous minister of the Nation of Islam. He became the senior editor for Reader’s Digest and wrote many famous interviews for Playboy magazine including Miles Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., and George Lincoln Rockwell.
Since his Coast Guard days, Haley completed much of his writing at sea. He wrote a Different Kind of Christmas, the story of a slave's escape on the Underground Railroad, while onboard a freighter voyage from Long Beach, California to Australia in 1973. Haley worked to promote literacy, adult literacy especially, and participated in programs that encouraged young people to remain in school. Each year, thanks to the famous Coast Guard veteran, eight students, selected based on economic need, are supported from freshman year through graduate school by Alex Haley's Scholarship Fund. Haley spoke fondly of his time in the Coast Guard with timeless statements such as "you don't spend twenty years of your life in the service and not have a warm, nostalgic feeling left in you.” Much of the Cutter’s accomplishments are dedicated to Alex Haley and his timeless accomplishments."
Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. It was adapted by ABC as a TV mini-series of the same name and aired in 1977 to a record-breaking 130 million viewers. It had great influence on awareness in the United States of African-American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
Haley had previously written The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bHxYlQi0DM
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown CMSgt (Join to see) MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Sgt Albert Castro SSG David Andrews Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT Mark Halmrast PO1 William "Chip" Nagel CPT Gabe SnellLTC Greg Henning
Background from
CGC Alex Haley History
Alex P. Haley
Chief Journalist Alex P. Haley 1921-1992
Born in Ithaca, New York on August 11, 1921, Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was the oldest of four children. He enrolled at Alcorn State University at the age of 15 and enrolled at Elizabeth City State College a year later. After withdrawing from college and much to the urging of his father, Haley enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. On May 24, 1939, he started his 20-year career beginning as a mess attendant.
While serving at sea onboard the Cutters MENDOTA and MURZIM in the Pacific Theater of War during World War II, Haley taught himself the art of letter writing. He would send out approximately 40 letters a week and receive nearly as many. Other sailors began to notice his talents and would pay him to write love letters for their girlfriends. He also practiced the art of story writing. Serving onboard Cutters at sea, Haley would put to paper the sea stories of old, salty sailors.
After the War, Haley pursued his interest in writing and requested that the Coast Guard let him transfer to the journalist rating. While the rating had not yet existed, the Coast Guard recognized his talents and made him the first chief journalist. Until retiring, he served as the permanent assistant to the Public Relations Officer at Coast Guard Headquarters. In 1959 he retired at the rank of chief petty officer with a long list of awards and decorations from his time serving in WWII and the Korean War.
After the Coast Guard, Haley continued to write and hone his journalism skills. He penned the worldwide bestseller Roots, which received the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was based on Haley's extensive conversations with the famous minister of the Nation of Islam. He became the senior editor for Reader’s Digest and wrote many famous interviews for Playboy magazine including Miles Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., and George Lincoln Rockwell.
Since his Coast Guard days, Haley completed much of his writing at sea. He wrote a Different Kind of Christmas, the story of a slave's escape on the Underground Railroad, while onboard a freighter voyage from Long Beach, California to Australia in 1973. Haley worked to promote literacy, adult literacy especially, and participated in programs that encouraged young people to remain in school. Each year, thanks to the famous Coast Guard veteran, eight students, selected based on economic need, are supported from freshman year through graduate school by Alex Haley's Scholarship Fund. Haley spoke fondly of his time in the Coast Guard with timeless statements such as "you don't spend twenty years of your life in the service and not have a warm, nostalgic feeling left in you.” Much of the Cutter’s accomplishments are dedicated to Alex Haley and his timeless accomplishments."
Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. It was adapted by ABC as a TV mini-series of the same name and aired in 1977 to a record-breaking 130 million viewers. It had great influence on awareness in the United States of African-American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
Haley had previously written The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bHxYlQi0DM
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown CMSgt (Join to see) MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Sgt Albert Castro SSG David Andrews Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT Mark Halmrast PO1 William "Chip" Nagel CPT Gabe SnellLTC Greg Henning
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Maj Marty Hogan, Haley was a plagiarist and a fabricator. This also from Wikipedia:
“Roots faced two lawsuits that charged plagiarism and copyright infringement. The lawsuit brought by Margaret Walker was dismissed, but Harold Courlander's suit was successful. Courlander's novel The African describes an African boy who is captured by slave traders, follows him across the Atlantic on a slave ship, and describes his attempts to hold on to his African traditions on a plantation in America. Haley admitted that some passages from The African had made it into Roots, settling the case out of court in 1978 and paying Courlander $650,000.
Genealogists have also disputed Haley's research and conclusions in Roots. The Gambian griot turned out not to be a real griot, and the story of Kunta Kinte appears to have been a case of circular reporting, in which Haley's own words were repeated back to him. None of the written records in Virginia and North Carolina line up with the Roots story until after the Civil War. Some elements of Haley's family story can be found in the written records, but the most likely genealogy would be different from the one described in Roots.
Haley and his work have been excluded from the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, despite his status as the United States' best-selling African-American author. Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the anthology's general editors, has denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works are the reason for this exclusion. In 1998 Dr. Gates acknowledged the doubts surrounding Haley's claims about Roots, saying, ‘Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship.’”
CW5 Jack Cardwell SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SCPO (Join to see) SPC Douglas Bolton
“Roots faced two lawsuits that charged plagiarism and copyright infringement. The lawsuit brought by Margaret Walker was dismissed, but Harold Courlander's suit was successful. Courlander's novel The African describes an African boy who is captured by slave traders, follows him across the Atlantic on a slave ship, and describes his attempts to hold on to his African traditions on a plantation in America. Haley admitted that some passages from The African had made it into Roots, settling the case out of court in 1978 and paying Courlander $650,000.
Genealogists have also disputed Haley's research and conclusions in Roots. The Gambian griot turned out not to be a real griot, and the story of Kunta Kinte appears to have been a case of circular reporting, in which Haley's own words were repeated back to him. None of the written records in Virginia and North Carolina line up with the Roots story until after the Civil War. Some elements of Haley's family story can be found in the written records, but the most likely genealogy would be different from the one described in Roots.
Haley and his work have been excluded from the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, despite his status as the United States' best-selling African-American author. Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the anthology's general editors, has denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works are the reason for this exclusion. In 1998 Dr. Gates acknowledged the doubts surrounding Haley's claims about Roots, saying, ‘Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship.’”
CW5 Jack Cardwell SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SCPO (Join to see) SPC Douglas Bolton
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Had never heard a bit of that information. Thanks LTC Stephen C.. I think I'll keep all that separate from his Coastie career. I shall remember him that way.
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