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| Name: | Alex Haley | ||
| Birth: | August 11 1921 | ||
| Death: | February 10 1992 | ||
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Born in Ithaca, New York, Haley spent his first five years in Henning, Tennessee in an African American family with his two younger brothers. Haley was born to Simon Alexander Haley and Bertha Palmer. Haley's father was a professor of agriculture who had served in World War I after graduating from college. The younger Haley always spoke proudly of his father and the incredible obstacles of racism he had overcome. Alex Haley was first sent off to college at the age of 15. At the age of seventeen he returned home to inform his father of his withdrawal from Alcorn State University. Simon Haley felt that Alex needed discipline and growth and convinced his son to enlist in the military when he turned 18. On May 24, 1939, Alex Haley began his 20-year service with the Coast Guard.
He enlisted as a mess-boy and then became a Petty Officer Third Class in the rate of Steward , one of the few rates open to African Americans at that time. It was during his service in the Pacific theater of operations that Haley taught himself the craft of writing stories. It is said that during his enlistment he was often paid by other sailors to write love letters to their girlfriends. He talked of how the greatest enemy he and his crew faced during their long sea voyages wasn't the Japanese but boredom. He collected many rejection slips over an eight-year period before his first story was bought.
After World War II, Haley was able to petition the Coast Guard to allow him to transfer into the field of journalism, and by 1949 he had become a Petty Officer First Class in the rating of Journalist. He later advanced to Chief Petty Officer and held this grade until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959. He was the first Chief Journalist in the Coast Guard.
Writing Career
After his retirement from the Coast Guard, Haley began his writing career and eventually became a senior editor for Reader's Digest. He also was the ghostwriter for Profiles in Courage , although his contributions to this book were from more of a stylistic, editing standpoint.
