Alex Haley

Alex Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer.  His novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a story about an African from the 18th century, Kunta Kinte, that was sold into slavery in the United States.  Although the book was geared as fictional, it is said the Alex Haley traced back his family roots as far as seven generations and was therefore the great-great-great-great-grandson of Kunta Kinte.

Alex Haley attended Alcorn State University at the age of 15; after dropping out of college he enlisted in the Coast Guard.  During his tenure in the Coast Guard, Alex became the Chief Journalist.  Upon his 20-year enlistment, Alex Haley became the senior editor for Reader's Digest; he also conducted the first interview for Playboy magazine.  After Alex Haley's interview with jazz legend Miles Davis, Alex had a different tone for the magazine which included interviewing Martin Luther King Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., American Nazi party leader George Lincoln Rockwell; he also completed a memoir of Malcolm X weeks before his assination.  Alex Haley's first book to be published, The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965. 

Alex Haley earned the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the mini-series won nine Emmys and a Peabody award.  Although the book spent 22 weeks on The Times Spot and 46 weeks total, it was later determined that certain adaptations was plagiarized by a previously written novel The American written by Harold Courlander.