Who wrote the 1976 novel ‘Roots: The Saga of an American Family’?
Roots: The Saga of an American Family Roots: The Saga of an American Family Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent, sold into slavery in Africa, transported to North America; following his life and the lives of his descendants in the United States 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, and it is considered to be one of the most important U.S.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family of the list entirely until August 7. By then, the list had featured it for forty-six weeks. Together, the success of the novel and its 1977 television adaptation sparked an explosion of interest in the fields of genealogy and researching family histories. Haley earned a Pulitzer Prize special award in 1977 for "Roots." The television miniseries garnered many awards, including nine Emmys and a Peabody. In the spring of 1977, Haley was charged with plagiarism in separate lawsuits by Harold Courlander and Margaret Walker Alexander. Courlander, an anthropologist, charged "Roots" was copied from his novel "The African" (1967). Walker claimed