The writer and television historian Les Brown Wolper Productions, included LeVar Burton, Ben Vereen, John Amos, Leslie Uggams, Maya Angelou, Cicely Tyson, Edward Asner, Harry Rhodes and Robert Reed. The cast of the 1977 mini-series, produced by David L. The sequel, 'Roots: The Next Generation,' was broadcast in February 1979 and also drew large audiences. According to Nielsen Media Research, its eight episodes reached average audiences that ranged from 28.8 million households toģ6.3 million households. The ABC mini-series of 'Roots,' first broadcast in January 1977, still ranks among the 100 highest-rated programs. In addition, the book has been published in more than two dozen foreign countries, said John Hawkins, who heads the literary agency representing Mr. Marly Rusoff, the executive director of publicity for Doubleday, which originally published the book, said yesterday that more than 1.5 million copies of 'Roots' had been published in hard cover, including book club editions, and that more thanĤ million copies of the Dell paperback edition had been sold. Preponderantly the histories have been written by the winners.' Haley's father, and the author's affirming 'the hope that this story of our people can help to alleviate the legacies of the fact that The book ended with an account of the burial of Mr. Forcing forth from Binta's strong young body, he was black as she was, and he was bawling.' West Africa, a manchild was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte. Haley's creative depiction of the birth of one of his ancestors, Kunta Kinte: 'Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia, The work, based in part on research in Africa, began with Mr. The ABC television mini-series fashioned from the book attracted millions of viewers early in 1977. 'Roots,' which was published in 1976, spurred an interest in genealogy among Americans of many ethnic heritages. He was scheduled to speak today at the Bangor Naval Submarine Base at Bremerton, Wash., 15 miles from Seattle.

Haley's son, William Alexander Haley, said at a news conference in Seattle yesterday that his father had apparently suffered a heart attack and been taken to the He died of cardiac arrest, said a spokeswoman for the hospital, Jane Ann Wilder. He was 70 years old and had homes in Knoxville, Tenn., Norris, Tenn., and Seattle. Newspaper in Education (NIE) Teacher ResourcesįebruOBITUARY Alex Haley, 70, Author of 'Roots,' Dies By ERIC PACEĪlex Haley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Roots: The Saga of an American Family,' which chronicled his ancestors' origins in Africa and their passage from slavery to freedom in America, died yesterday at Swedish Hospital MedicalĬenter in Seattle.

Alex haley books