Alex Haley

Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, and spent part of his childhood in Henning, Tennessee, where his grandmother told stories about the family's ancestors. He left college and joined the United States Coast Guard in 1939. He served for 20 years, starting as a mess attendant, and began writing to pass the time at sea. The Coast Guard later made him its first chief journalist.

After he retired he wrote for magazines and conducted the first Playboy interview, with Miles Davis, in 1962. A later interview with Malcolm X led to their book. The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) is told in Malcolm's voice, shaped by Haley from many hours of conversation. Haley finished it after Malcolm was killed and added an epilogue.

Roots (1976) traced his mother's family back to Kunta Kinte, a man taken from the Gambia and sold into slavery. It won a special Pulitzer Prize and became a 1977 television series watched by tens of millions. A plagiarism suit by the novelist Harold Courlander ended in a settlement, and genealogists have questioned its family history. He died in Seattle in 1992.