HALEY, Alex.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

"Search", original typescript. An original unpublished typescript by Haley, inscribed by him on the third blank, "April 12, 1978. Lou and Evelyn - I want you to share my small boyhood that's to open my coming book SEARCH. Maybe you'll feel as I do: that it was meant I'd grow up to write Roots. With love Alex". The recipients were Lou Blau and his wife Evelyn; Lou was an entertainment attorney who represented Haley alongside Stanley Kubrick and Danielle Steel. There are 7 small ink corrections in Haley's hand to the text.This typescript is an early recollection by Haley of his grandfather, Will Palmer, a pillar of his community and "the greatest man I knew". It is unpublished, although he used elements of this excerpt from his family history for his 1984 address at Brown University, "Alex Haley's Better Day", in which he references a book he is working on named after his town of origin, Henning. He had previously released a spoken-word album, Alex Haley Tells the Story of His Search for Roots (1977), but a book version was never realized. The narrative comprises his earliest recollections, painting a portrait of his grandfather ("He was tall and black, he had a fine thick moustache, and he stood straight as any tree") and the community which inspired his interest in history. He recalls memories of his grandfather's lumber yard, which he had taken over from a white man ("causing a sensation through all Western Tennessee"); his grandmother's religious fervour; and his first memo

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