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  1. Dec 15, 1978 · Alex Haley settles lawsuit against him by Harold Courlander, author of novel The African, by acknowledging that his book, Roots, contained some material from Courlander book; amt of settlement...

  2. Feb 9, 2017 · But that was before Haley was forced to settle a plagiarism suit out of court – conceding the following year that parts of it were lifted from a 1967 novel, The African – and before significant...

    • John Dugdale
  3. May 13, 2023 · Before questions about his Playboy interview with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Haley faced charges of plagiarism and inaccuracy in ‘Roots’. By Gillian Brockell. May 13, 2023 at 7:00 a.m....

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    • Who Was Alex Haley?
    • Early Life
    • Writing For The Coast Guard
    • 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'
    • 'Roots'
    • Plagiarism Controversy
    • 'Roots' Sequel and Remake
    • Later Books
    • Personal Life
    • Death and Legacy

    Alex Haley served in the U.S. Coast Guard for two decades before pursuing a career as a writer. He eventually helmed a series of interviews for Playboy magazine and later co-authored The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The following decade, Haley made history with his book Roots, chronicling his family line from Gambia to the enslaved-holding South. Th...

    Haley was born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley on August 11, 1921, in Ithaca, New York. At the time of his birth, Haley's father, Simon, a World War I veteran, was a graduate student in agriculture at Cornell University, and his mother, Bertha, was a musician and teacher. For the first years of his life, Haley, who was called Palmer during childhood,...

    In 1939, Haley quit school to join the Coast Guard. Although he enlisted as a seaman, he was made to toil in the inglorious role of mess attendant. To relieve his boredom while on the ship, Haley bought a portable typewriter and typed out love letters for his less articulate friends. He also wrote short stories and articles and sent them to magazin...

    Upon retiring from the Coast Guard in 1959, 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. In 1962, Haley got his big break when an interview he conducted with famous trumpeter Miles Davis was published in Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine. The story ...

    In the aftermath of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, writing and lecturing offers for Haley began pouring in, and he could have easily lived out his lifelong dream of being a successful independent scribe. Instead, Haley embarked on a hugely ambitious new project to trace and retell the story of his ancestors' journey from Africa to America as ensla...

    In 1978, novelist and anthropologist Harold Courlander filed a lawsuit against Haley, claiming he had plagiarized 81 passages from Courlander's book The African. Ultimately the two settled out of court, with Haley reportedly paying a large sum to the novelist and his publisher and acknowledging that he did indeed use parts of Courlander's work. Wri...

    Nonetheless, the work continued to enjoy popularity on the screen in the form of a 1979 sequel Roots: The Next Generation, which followed the writer's family to contemporary times. The miniseries also performed well in the ratings and featured the likes of Dorian Harewood, Marlon Brando, Irene Cara, Diahann Carroll, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Henry Fon...

    Haley's later works include A Different Kind of Christmas (1988) and Queen, another historical novel based on a different branch of his family, published posthumously in 1993. (Queen also became a TV miniseries that aired the same year, starring Halle Berryand Danny Glover.)

    Haley wed Nannie Branche in 1941; they remained married for 23 years before divorcing in 1964. That same year, he married Juliette Collins; they split in 1972. He later wed Myra Lewis, to whom he remained married for the duration of his life, though the two were separated at the time of his passing. Haley had three children, a son and two daughters...

    Haley died of a heart attack on February 10, 1992, in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 70. Despite the shadow cast by his plagiarism controversies, the author is credited with inspiring a nationwide interest in genealogy and contributing a larger awareness to the horrors of racism and slavery and their place in American history. While some critic...

  5. Dec 17, 2021 · Two writers accused Haley of plagiarism; one case was dismissed, and he settled the other out of court for $650,000 (or $2.7 million today). The lawsuits were debilitating and humiliating. The...

  6. Mar 1, 2017 · There was a hefty out of court settlement as at least 81 plagiarised passages were identified. Historians and genealogists also spoke up after following Haley's paper trail and finding...

  7. May 19, 2016 · Pulitzer prize winner Alex Haley said “Roots” was based on his own family history — but settled a highly publicized plagiarism lawsuit. But due to the plagiarism controversy, some...

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