Biography
August 11, February 10,
Alex Haleys Early Days
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley, the oldest of three sons (George and Julius), was born to Simon and Bertha (Palmer) Haley on August 11, , in Ithaca, New York. Six weeks after his birth, Simon and Bertha returned to Henning, Tennessee, and presented Will and Cynthia Palmer with their grandson, Alex Haley. Alex and his mother remained with the Palmers, while Simon returned to Cornell University to complete his graduate studies in agriculture. After the death of Will Palmer in , Simon Haley joined his wife and family in Henning and operated the Palmer business. During this time, Haley listened to his grandmother Cynthia tell vibrant stories about their familys ancestry. She spoke about Kin-tay, one of his grandfathers tracing back seven generations, whom she said was sold into slavery with other Gambian Africans in Naplis (Annapolis, Maryland). In , Simon Haley began his teaching career, and the family moved. Two years after they relocated, Bertha Haley passed away in Normal, Alabama when Alex was ten years old.
Although Alex was considered a lax student, he graduated from high school at the age of
Alex Haley Biography | Author of Roots
In Haley was born in Ithaca, New York. He grew up in Henning, Tennessee, and even after his family moved, he spent his summers there. Haley's mother, Bertha, died when he was only twelve years old. Haley's father, Simon, was a respected professor of agriculture who died just before Roots was completed.
Haley was an indifferent student and eventually joined the Coast Guard. He found he had a talent for writing, and began to submit pieces to magazines. When he left the service at age thirty-seven, he had become the chief journalist for the Coast Guard, a position that had been created for him.
After struggling to make ends meet in his new civilian life, Haley received an assignment from Playboy to interview Miles Davis, the first of what were to become infamous as "the Playboy interviews." Soon afterwards, he began to collaborate with Malcolm X
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Alex Haley
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Who Was Alex Haley?
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. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book was turned into a miniseries that became one of the most popular TV shows of all time. Major controversy ensued, however, when Haley was accused of plagiarism and presenting historical and genealogical inaccuracies. Nonetheless, Roots has remained a groundbreaking work in the public imagination.
Early Life
Haley was born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley on August 11, , 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, lived with his grandparents Cynthia and Will in Henning, Tennessee, while his father finished his studies. Up
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Alex Murray Palmer Haley was born in Ithaca, New York when his parents were students: his father Simon Haley was obtaining a master's degree in agriculture at Cornell and his mother Bertha Palmer was studying at the Ithaca Conservatory of Music. After Haley's birth, his mother returned to her childhood home of Henning, Tennessee and raised him with the help of her parents Will and Cynthia. Simon and Bertha had two more sons, George and Julius; after the latter's birth in the family moved around to wherever Simon held a professorship. Bertha died in at the age of 34, and Simon remarried two years later to Zeona Hatcher, another professor. She and Simon had Alex's half-sister, Lois.
Haley spent two decades in the Coast Guard, enlisting when he was 17 and, after World War II, becoming a journalist for the Coast Guard. He retired from duty in when he was 37 and devoted the rest of his career to writing. His conversation with Miles Davis in was the first Playboy interview ever, and in Haley published The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written in collaboration with its namesake and published shortly after his unt
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