A native of Henning, Tennessee, Alex Haley taught himself to write during a twenty year career in the U.S. Coast Guard. After retiring from that service, in 1959, he became a magazine writer and interviewer, and has spent 12 years researching and writing "Roots" (Doubleday, 1976), the epic drama of his family from the abduction of his…

These volumes offer a blend of genres, authors, and purposes. Specific portraits are provided for each volume in chronological order. The central historical and educational values are in the view that the books give of the world of petit-bourgeois African-American women at the turn of the century. (SLD)