The New Times reported that on a trip to his ancestral village in Africa, Haley complained: "You'll find that people who celebrate you will kill you. They forget you are blood and flesh and bone. I have had days and weeks and months of schedules where everything from my breakfast to my last waking moment was planned for me. The story line of Roots II, as it was called, begins in , twelve years after the end of the Roots I, and it concludes in In Haley was working on a novel set in the Appalachian culture that he had researched extensively.
The novel was centered around the relationships among a mountain father, son, and grandson. Because this book was not about blacks but primarily about whites, Haley said of the project, "I think one of the most fascinating things you can do after you learn about your own people is to study something about the history and culture of other people. Haley also researched his paternal heritage his father's ancestry , which became the book Queen.
But before he could finish the book, Haley died on February 10, David Stevens would complete the work on Queen. Accusations surfaced about the historical accuracy of Queen, and critics questioned whether a romance had actually existed between Queen and her slave-owning master.
According to Melinda Henneberger in the The New York Times, the tapes left by Haley did not mention a romance between his paternal great-grandparents. Producer Mark Wolper indicated "Haley had become convinced by his later inquiries … that his great-grandparents had actually been in love.
Haley also planned to write a book detailing the life of millionaire Madame C. Walker — and her daughter A'Lelia. Haley had signed a three-book contract with Ballantine for its new multicultural publishing program, for which his first title was to be a history of his hometown—Henning.
Those who knew Haley well say his research on Henning predated the writing of Roots. Haley was buried on the grounds of his Henning homestead. Gonzales, Doreen. Alex Haley: Author of Roots. Hillside, NJ: Enslow, Shirley, David. Alex Haley. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, Haley was also posthumously awarded the Korean War Service Medal ten years after his death. In the interview, Davis candidly spoke about his thoughts and feelings on racism and it was this interview that set the tone for what would become a significant part of the magazine.
Haley then began interviewing cultural icons, including Martin Luther King, Jr. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after Haley, in a phone conversation, assured him that he was not Jewish.
Haley exhibited remarkable calm and professionalism, despite the handgun Rockwell kept on the table throughout the interview. Haley also interviewed Cassius Clay, who spoke about changing his name to Muhammad Ali. Published in , the book became a huge success and was later named by Time magazine as one of the ten most important nonfiction books of the 20th century.
The book was translated into eight languages and sold over 8 million copies. Haley later completed a memoir of Malcolm X for Playboy six months before his death in February The memoir was published in the July issue of the magazine. Pursuing the few slender clues of oral family history told him by his maternal grandmother in Henning, Tennessee, Haley spent the next twelve years traveling three continents tracking his maternal family back to a Mandingo youth, named Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped into slavery from the small village of Juffure, in The Gambia, West Africa.
Haley said the most emotional moment of his life was on September 29, , when he stood at the site in Annapolis, Maryland where his ancestor had arrived years before. During this period, Haley became a prolific lecturer at various universities in the United States and in Great Britain and received many honorary doctor of letters degrees for his work. With cover stories, book reviews, and interviews with Haley in scores of magazines and newspaper articles, the book became the number one national best seller, sold in the millions and was published as a paperback in Roots became a phenomenon.
Instructional packages, lesson plans based on Roots and other books about Roots for schools, were published along with records and tapes by Haley. Roots was eventually published in 37 languages. Martin Luther King, Jr. For the first five years of his life, Haley lived with his mother and grandparents in Henning, Tennessee , while his father finished his studies. When Simon Haley completed his degree, he joined the family in Tennessee and taught as a professor of agriculture at various southern universities.
Alex Haley was always remarkably 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. At the conclusion of World War II , the Coast Guard permitted Haley to transfer into the field of journalism, and by 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 , after 20 years of service. Upon retiring from the Coast Guard in , 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. Then, in , Haley got his big break when Playboy magazine assigned him to conduct an interview with the famous trumpeter Miles Davis.
The interview was such a success that the magazine contracted Haley to do a series of interviews with prominent African-Americans. After concluding his interview with Malcolm X, Haley asked the civil rights leader if he could write a book on his life.
A seminal book of the civil rights movement as well as an international bestseller, the book memorialized for eternity the life of Malcolm X while transforming Haley, his collaborator, into a celebrated writer. In the aftermath of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, freelance writing offers for Haley began pouring in, and he could have easily lived out his lifelong dream of being a successful independent writer.
During a decade of research on three continents, Haley examined slave ship records at archives in the United States and England and traveled to Gambia, the home of his ancestors in West Africa. Alex Haley married Nannie Branch in , and they remained married for 13 years before divorcing in That same year, he married Juliette Collins; they split in He later married Myra Lewis, to whom he remained married for the duration of his life.
Haley had three children, a son and two daughters. His later works included A Different Kind of Christmas and Queen, another historical novel based on a different branch of his family, published posthumously in Haley died of a heart attack on February 10, , at the age of
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