WRITER

Alex Haley

1921 - 1992

Photo of Alex Haley

Icon of person Alex Haley

Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Alex Haley has received more than 3,071,398 page views. His biography is available in 41 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 40 in 2019). Alex Haley is the 2,685th most popular writer (down from 1,863rd in 2019), the 3,393rd most popular biography from United States (down from 2,413th in 2019) and the 295th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 3.1M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 53.87

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 41

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.81

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.99

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

A Different Kind of Christmas
Underground railroad, Fiction, African Americans
Alex Haley’s Roots is one of the world’s most beloved and important books. In A Different Kind of Christmas, the intense drama of a white Southerner and a black slave who work toward a common goal, Alex Haley once again gives us a moving story of physical and moral courage, and an unforgettable tale of spiritual regeneration. Rendered with a matchless sense of time and place, a poetic humanness, and a rich, robust humor, this novel will delight and inspire readers of all ages and faith for generations to come. A Different Kind of Christmas is the story of Fletcher Randall, a nineteen-year-old white Southerner from North Carolina whose politically powerful father is a plantation owner, and, of course, a slave owner. The time is 1855 and all Fletcher knows and believes about slavery he has learned from his father. But Fletcher goes to school up North, and one or two of his Princeton classmates talk about how wrong slavery is until Fletcher begins to think for himself—and he becomes a traitor to his background, to his family, by conspiring to aid in a mass escape of slaves on the Underground Railroad. His partner in this plan is a black slave by the name Harpin’ John, a man who plays the harmonica so sweetly it could make a grown man cry. Christmas Eve is the secret date set for the escape. How these two men of such incredibly opposing backgrounds join together to achieve the goal of freedom makes A Different Kind of Christmas soar with unforgettable inspiration. It is a timeless tale of spiritual regeneration, moral courage, and powerful humanness, meaningful and memorable to readers of all faiths and ages.
1988
Mama Flora's Family
Fiction, African American families, African Americans
Mama Flora’s Family is a novel by Alex Haley. It is the poignant story of three generations of an African-American family who start out as destitute sharecroppers in Tennessee. Mama Flora is the heart and strength of the family, shepherding her children through hard times after the murder of her husband by white land holders. She has passionate ambitions for her son Willie, but he dashes her dreams by abandoning his church-going roots and moving to Chicago. After fighting in the Second World War, he marries his childhood sweetheart and struggles to build a new urban life for his family. Flora’s dreams are realized by Ruthana, her sister’s child whom Mama Flora adopts. Ruthana graduates from college, and as a social worker in Harlem, counsels underprivileged women. Through her love for the radical poet, Ben, Ruthana begins to understand her heritage and after a sojourn in Africa comes to a redemptive understanding of herself. In Chicago, Willie’s twin son and daughter embrace Muslim militancy and Black Power, and eventually, drugs in their rocky road through the 1960s and Flora struggles to maintain her family while caught up in the turbulent times. It is a sweeping epic of contemporary history that weaves an unforgettable story of one family, three generations, and their search for the American dream. It was later adapted as a television miniseries based on the novel staring Cicely Tyson, Erika Alexander, Blair Underwood and Queen Latifah.
1998
Somerset Homecoming
African American, African American families, African Americans
In 1860, Somerset Place was one of the most successful plantations in North Carolina—and its owner one of the largest slaveholders in the state. More than 300 slaves worked the plantation’s fields at the height of its prosperity; but nearly 125 years later, the only remembrance of their lives at Somerset, now a state historic site, was a lonely wooden sign marked “Site of Slave Quarters.” Somerset Homecoming is the story of one woman’s unflagging efforts to recover the history of her ancestors, slaves who had lived and worked at Somerset Place. Traveling down winding southern roads, through county courthouses and state archives, and onto the front porches of people willing to share tales handed down through generations, Dorothy Spruill Redford spent ten years tracing the lives of Somerset’s slaves and their descendants. Her endeavors culminated in the joyous, nationally publicized homecoming she organized that brought together more than 2,000 descendants of the plantation’s slaves and owners and marked the beginning of a campaign to turn Somerset Place into a remarkable resource for learning about the history of both African Americans and whites in the region. This poignant, personal saga of black roots and branches is recommended for Afro-American, Southern, local history, and genealogy collections. Note: Somerset Place stands today as a rather remarkable historic site. It offers an interpretive tour that meshes the lifestyles of all of the plantation’s residents into one concise chronological social history of the plantation’s 80-year lifespan. Alex Haley contributed to Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage by writing the introduction.
1988
Alex Haley's Queen
African Americans, Biography, Family
Alex Haley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Roots, tells about his great-great-grandfather who came to Alabama from Ireland, married a slave and then fathered a daughter—Haley’s grandmother, Queen. The story begins in Ireland, where Haley’s white great-great-grandfather, James Jackson, Sr., is born. From there we travel with Jackson to Nashville, where he meets Andrew Jackson, the future president of the United States. The two men become business partners and James Jackson makes his fortune. He establishes his grand plantation, The Forks of Cypress, in Alabama, while Andrew ascends to the White House, and the rumblings that will explode into the Civil War gather force. James’s son, Jass Jackson, inherits the plantation just as the genteel, well-ordered antebellum world begins to crumble. His adolescent attraction to the beautiful and strongwilled slave named Easter blossoms into a powerful and lasting love, and from their passionate union comes Queen—the heroine of the tale, Alex Haley’s grandmother. This is history at its most compelling—from the Irish sod to the settlement of the South; from the Trail of Tears to the battlefield at Manassas; from the agonies of slavery to the tribulations of freedom—all rendered with the eye for telling detail and the sense of historical significance that readers have come to expect of Haley. A miniseries adaptation called Alex Haley’s Queen and starring Halle Berry, Danny Glover, Tim Daly, Ann-Margret and Ossie Davis aired on CBS on February 14, 1993.
1993
Roots
African American families, African Americans, Afro-Americans
Roots is a groundbreaking story of history and family that spanned continents and touched generations. One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots galvanized the nation and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that hadn’t been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Roots is a novel written by Alex Haley and published in 1976. It portrays the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent 46 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including 22 weeks in that list’s top spot. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The last seven chapters of the novel were later adapted in the form of a second mini-series, Roots: The Next Generations, in 1979.
1974
All For The Better
Juvenile literature, Puerto Ricans, Biography
All For The Better: A Story of El Barrio is about a young Puerto Rican girl, Evelina Lopez Antonetty, who showed herself over and over again to be a leader. She proved that one person could make a difference. It was her faith in humanity and her love of all people that helped her succeed. She is remembered by people in the South Bronx and throughout the larger Puerto Rican community. During the dark days of the Great Depression, eleven-year-old Evelina Lopez Antonetty leaves Puerto Rico to live with an aunt in New York and encounters prejudice and hardships. With patience and determination, she finds success and learns that one person can make a difference as she adjusts to life in her new home. Nicholasa Mohr is a published author of several young adult and children’s books. Some of her published credits include: All For The Better: A Story of El Barrio (Stories of America), The Dust Bowl Adventures of Patty and Earl Buckler (I Am American) and Yankee Blue or Rebel Gray: The Civil War Adventures of Sam Shaw. Alex Haley, as General Editor, wrote the introduction.
1992
Roots
Blacks, History, African American families
Roots is a novel written by Alex Haley and published in 1976. It portrays the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent 46 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including 22 weeks in that list’s top spot. The last seven chapters of the novel were later adapted in the form of a second mini-series, Roots: The Next Generations, in 1979. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America’s past, and we continue to feel its reverberations today.
1861
Alex Haley's Queen
African Americans, Biography, Family
Alex Haley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Roots, tells about his great-great-grandfather who came to Alabama from Ireland, married a slave and then fathered a daughter—Haley’s grandmother, Queen. The story begins in Ireland, where Haley’s white great-great-grandfather, James Jackson, Sr., is born. From there we travel with Jackson to Nashville, where he meets Andrew Jackson, the future president of the United States. The two men become business partners and James Jackson makes his fortune. He establishes his grand plantation, The Forks of Cypress, in Alabama, while Andrew ascends to the White House, and the rumblings that will explode into the Civil War gather force. James’s son, Jass Jackson, inherits the plantation just as the genteel, well-ordered antebellum world begins to crumble. His adolescent attraction to the beautiful and strongwilled slave named Easter blossoms into a powerful and lasting love, and from their passionate union comes Queen—the heroine of the tale, Alex Haley’s grandmother. This is history at its most compelling—from the Irish sod to the settlement of the South; from the Trail of Tears to the battlefield at Manassas; from the agonies of slavery to the tribulations of freedom—all rendered with the eye for telling detail and the sense of historical significance that readers have come to expect of Haley. A miniseries adaptation called Alex Haley’s Queen and starring Halle Berry, Danny Glover, Tim Daly, Ann-Margret and Ossie Davis aired on CBS on February 14, 1993.
1983
Autobiografía Malcolm X
Mahometanos negros, Black Muslims, Open Library Staff Picks
Biografía del líder negro americano religioso y activista que nació Malcolm Little, publicado en 1965. Escrito por Alex Haley, que había llevado a cabo extensas entrevistas grabadas con Malcolm X antes de su asesinato en 1965, el libro ganó fama como un trabajo clásico en negro experiencia americana. La autobiografía es contada a través de la voz en primera persona de Malcolm X con contenido añadido y narrativa proporcionada por Alex Haley. Aunque a veces auto-engrandecimiento, Malcolm X habla de su extraordinaria transformación de un niño cuyo padre fue asesinado por racistas blancos, a un joven estafador y traficante de drogas en Harlem, Nueva York, a un erudito autodidacta en la cárcel, a un destacado líder y ministro de la Nación del Islam, y, finalmente, a un hombre transformado por su viaje a África y a la Meca y se marca como una amenaza por parte de los líderes de la Nación del Islam. A través de una vida de pasión y lucha, Malcolm X se convirtió en una de las figuras más influyentes del siglo 20. Aquí, el hombre que se hacía llamar "el hombre más enojado Negro en América" ​​relata cómo su conversión al Islam le ayudó a enfrentarse a su ira y reconocer la hermandad de toda la humanidad. Un clásico establecida de la América moderna, la autobiografía de Malcolm X fue aclamado por el New York Times como "Extraordinaria. Una brillante, libro doloroso, importante. "La fuerza de sus palabras, el poder de sus ideas siguen resonando más de una generación después de su aparición.
1965
The end of white world supremacy
Addresses, essays, lectures, African Americans, Biography & Autobiography
The End of White World Supremacy is a collection of four major speeches by Malcolm X, including the famous "Chickens Come Home to Rooost" speech and "Black Man's History," "the Black Revolution," and "The Old Negro and the New Negro." Together, these four speeches cast new light on a man who ranks among the great leaders and teachers of his time.
1971
Speeches
Black Muslims, Civil rights, Race relations
1965
Afro-American History
African americans, history, African Americans, Blacks
1967
Speeches
Black Muslims, Civil rights, Race relations
1965
Afro-American History
African americans, history, African Americans, Blacks
1967
Autobiografía Malcolm X
Mahometanos negros, Black Muslims, Open Library Staff Picks
Biografía del líder negro americano religioso y activista que nació Malcolm Little, publicado en 1965. Escrito por Alex Haley, que había llevado a cabo extensas entrevistas grabadas con Malcolm X antes de su asesinato en 1965, el libro ganó fama como un trabajo clásico en negro experiencia americana. La autobiografía es contada a través de la voz en primera persona de Malcolm X con contenido añadido y narrativa proporcionada por Alex Haley. Aunque a veces auto-engrandecimiento, Malcolm X habla de su extraordinaria transformación de un niño cuyo padre fue asesinado por racistas blancos, a un joven estafador y traficante de drogas en Harlem, Nueva York, a un erudito autodidacta en la cárcel, a un destacado líder y ministro de la Nación del Islam, y, finalmente, a un hombre transformado por su viaje a África y a la Meca y se marca como una amenaza por parte de los líderes de la Nación del Islam. A través de una vida de pasión y lucha, Malcolm X se convirtió en una de las figuras más influyentes del siglo 20. Aquí, el hombre que se hacía llamar "el hombre más enojado Negro en América" ​​relata cómo su conversión al Islam le ayudó a enfrentarse a su ira y reconocer la hermandad de toda la humanidad. Un clásico establecida de la América moderna, la autobiografía de Malcolm X fue aclamado por el New York Times como "Extraordinaria. Una brillante, libro doloroso, importante. "La fuerza de sus palabras, el poder de sus ideas siguen resonando más de una generación después de su aparición.
1965
The end of white world supremacy
Addresses, essays, lectures, African Americans, Biography & Autobiography
The End of White World Supremacy is a collection of four major speeches by Malcolm X, including the famous "Chickens Come Home to Rooost" speech and "Black Man's History," "the Black Revolution," and "The Old Negro and the New Negro." Together, these four speeches cast new light on a man who ranks among the great leaders and teachers of his time.
1971
Alex Haley's Queen
African Americans, Biography, Family
Alex Haley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Roots, tells about his great-great-grandfather who came to Alabama from Ireland, married a slave and then fathered a daughter—Haley’s grandmother, Queen. The story begins in Ireland, where Haley’s white great-great-grandfather, James Jackson, Sr., is born. From there we travel with Jackson to Nashville, where he meets Andrew Jackson, the future president of the United States. The two men become business partners and James Jackson makes his fortune. He establishes his grand plantation, The Forks of Cypress, in Alabama, while Andrew ascends to the White House, and the rumblings that will explode into the Civil War gather force. James’s son, Jass Jackson, inherits the plantation just as the genteel, well-ordered antebellum world begins to crumble. His adolescent attraction to the beautiful and strongwilled slave named Easter blossoms into a powerful and lasting love, and from their passionate union comes Queen—the heroine of the tale, Alex Haley’s grandmother. This is history at its most compelling—from the Irish sod to the settlement of the South; from the Trail of Tears to the battlefield at Manassas; from the agonies of slavery to the tribulations of freedom—all rendered with the eye for telling detail and the sense of historical significance that readers have come to expect of Haley. A miniseries adaptation called Alex Haley’s Queen and starring Halle Berry, Danny Glover, Tim Daly, Ann-Margret and Ossie Davis aired on CBS on February 14, 1993.
1983
Roots
Blacks, History, African American families
Roots is a novel written by Alex Haley and published in 1976. It portrays the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent 46 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including 22 weeks in that list’s top spot. The last seven chapters of the novel were later adapted in the form of a second mini-series, Roots: The Next Generations, in 1979. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America’s past, and we continue to feel its reverberations today.
1861

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Alex Haley ranks 2,685 out of 7,302. Before him are Krishna Sobti, Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Petar Hektorović, Harlan Ellison, Labīd, and Jacques Collin de Plancy. After him are Jean-François de La Harpe, David Lagercrantz, Giuseppe Giacosa, Horace McCoy, Robert M. Pirsig, and William Smith.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1921, Alex Haley ranks 167. Before him are Heinz G. Konsalik, Luis García Berlanga, Dinko Šakić, Georges Mathieu, Andrzej Munk, and Gaston Reiff. After him are Daniel Gélin, Walter Laqueur, Silvio Gazzaniga, Wadih El Safi, Reuven Feuerstein, and Tadeusz Różewicz. Among people deceased in 1992, Alex Haley ranks 111. Before him are Hammer DeRoburt, Michel Berger, Paul Henreid, Petra Kelly, Franziska Donner, and Gaston Reiff. After him are Robert Morley, László Benedek, Mohammad Hidayatullah, Borislav Pekić, Joe Shuster, and Anthony Dawson.

Others Born in 1921

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Others Deceased in 1992

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Alex Haley ranks 3,393 out of 20,380. Before him are Ma Rainey (1886), George Pullman (1831), Tom Hulce (1953), Philip Kaufman (1936), Edwin Catmull (1945), and Harlan Ellison (1934). After him are Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš (1964), Marlee Matlin (1965), Paul Castellano (1915), Seth Rollins (1986), Mick Mars (1951), and Jack Cassidy (1927).

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Alex Haley ranks 295. Before him are Eric Carle (1929), Richard Bandler (1950), John Cheever (1912), William Goldman (1931), Michael Cunningham (1952), and Harlan Ellison (1934). After him are Horace McCoy (1897), Robert M. Pirsig (1928), Henry Darger (1892), Eric Roth (1945), Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (1822), and Stephenie Meyer (1973).

American born Writers

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