Alex Haley Follow

Alex Haley taught himself to write during a 20-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard. After retiring, he worked as a freelance magazine writer. His first book was The Autobiography of Malcom X, on which he was collaborator and editor. Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) was his second book, for which he was awarded special recognition from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award committees. It was a cultural phenomenon when it aired as a television miniseries in 1977, drawing an estimated 130 million viewers. He also wrote A Different Kind of Christmas and Queen, a sequel to Roots. Haley died in 1992 at a Seattle hospital at age 70.