Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The book was adapted by ABC as a TV mini-series of the same name and aired in 1977 to a record-breaking 130 million viewers. It had great influence on awareness in the United States of African-American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history. Haley's first book was 1965's The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader. He was working on a second family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as Alex Haley's Queen. It was adapted as a film of the same name released in 1993.