{"id":820,"date":"2017-02-24T05:06:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T05:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/?p=820"},"modified":"2022-06-27T12:37:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T16:37:04","slug":"robert-j-norrell-alex-haley-and-the-books-that-changed-a-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2017\/02\/24\/robert-j-norrell-alex-haley-and-the-books-that-changed-a-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert J. Norrell. Alex Haley and the Books That Changed a Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert J. Norrell. Alex Haley and the Books That Changed a Nation<\/em><\/a>. New York: St. Martin\u2019s Press, 2015. x, 251p., ill. ISBN 9781137279606. US $27.00 (hardback).<\/p>\n

It is difficult to believe that this is the first biography of Alex Haley, the author who wrote perhaps the two most influential books on African-American history in the twentieth century. Robert Norrell skillfully examines the extraordinary achievements of the enigmatic man behind Roots<\/em> (1976) and The Autobiography of Malcolm X<\/em> (1965),<\/em> books that transformed Americans\u2019 understanding of race.<\/em><\/p>\n

Norrell devotes a small section of the first chapter to Haley\u2019s childhood in Henning, Tennessee. Despite the fact that both of his parents were professors, Haley was a mediocre student and had no academic ambitions. He wanted to be a writer, but it was not until he enlisted in the Coast Guard (working as a cook) that he began to hone his storytelling skills. In the next few chapters, Norrell skillfully weaves together Haley\u2019s struggles to make a living as a hustling journalist with the development of his collaboration with Malcolm X. Haley eventually became a star journalist interviewing celebrities, but it was the publication of The Autobiography of Malcolm X<\/em> that put him on the map in academia, where he became a well-paid lecturer at various colleges. Norrell\u2019s rich, detailed research on Haley\u2019s professional and personal relationship with Malcolm X presents a fascinating and fast-paced read.<\/p>\n

Haley\u2019s propensity to start another project before finishing the project at hand perpetually placed him in financial trouble. One of those projects was Roots<\/em> (originally titled Before This Anger<\/em>), which he began while still working on The Autobiography<\/em>. Norrell devotes the remaining chapters to Haley\u2019s research and development of Roots<\/em> and the controversies surrounding it. Haley spent more than eleven years completing Roots<\/em>, including multiple trips to Africa and various national archives. Roots <\/em>was a personal journey for Haley, who sought to trace his ancestors back to their African origins and tell their stories.<\/p>\n

Norrell presents Haley as a great storyteller who always struggled to get the words on paper. This may explain Haley\u2019s dependence on Murray Fisher, who became Haley\u2019s personal editor. In Norrell\u2019s account, Fisher played a major role in making Haley one of the most famous writers in the country.<\/p>\n

Despite immense book sales and the popularity of the television miniseries of Roots<\/em>, Haley became the center of a legal battle brought by Harold Courlander, who claimed Haley plagiarized from his earlier published book, The African<\/em>. Haley settled the case out of court by paying Courlander an unspecified amount. Although Haley claimed to have settled out of fear of what a long legal battle would do to his reputation, the settlement was widely interpreted as an admission of guilt. The onslaught of attacks on the authenticity of Roots<\/em> endured, but Haley moved on to produce another successful television miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations<\/em>. However, many of his later productions had only limited success.<\/p>\n

Despite the accusations of plagiarism that may have hurt Haley\u2019s legacy, Norrell\u2019s plea for the public to remember Haley\u2019s great contribution to American culture is genuine and heartfelt. This is a compelling biography of an author who played a major role in changing American race relations, and Norrell presents Haley\u2019s life with sensitivity and sympathy. The book provides both a multidimensional portrait of the author and a well-supported argument about the power of his texts as \u201cbooks that changed a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda Isaac
\nUniversity of Miami<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert J. Norrell. Alex Haley and the Books That Changed a Nation. New York: St. Martin\u2019s Press, 2015. x, 251p., ill. ISBN 9781137279606. US $27.00 (hardback). It is difficult to believe that this is the first biography of Alex Haley, the author who wrote perhaps the two most influential books on African-American history in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1888],"tags":[1900,1904,1906,1907,1942],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-africa","tag-authorship","tag-biography","tag-black-studies","tag-north-america"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2556,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/2556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}