Alex Haley: The Lance Armstrong of the literary world

Alan · Jan 23, 2013

Plagerism at it's best.

Genealogists have since disputed Haley's research and conclusions. In addition, Harold Courlander, in 1978, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charging that Alex Haley, the author of Roots, had copied 81 passages from his novel, The African.[13] Courlander's pre-trial memorandum in the copyright infringement law suit stated: "Defendant Haley had access to and substantially copied from The African. Without The African, Roots would have been a very different and less successful novel, and indeed it is doubtful that Mr. Haley could have written Roots without the African.... Mr. Haley copied language, thoughts, attitudes, incidents, situations, plot and character."[14]

In his expert witness report submitted to the federal court in support of Courlander's claim, professor of English Michael Wood of Columbia University, stated:

The evidence of copying from The African in both the novel and the television dramatization of Roots is clear and irrefutable. The copying is significant and extensive ... Roots ... plainly uses The African as a model: as something to be copied at some times, and at other times to be modified, but always it seems, to be consulted ... Roots takes from The African phrases, situations, ideas, aspects of style and plot. Roots finds in The African essential elements for its depiction of such things as a slave's thoughts of escape, the psychology of an old slave, the habits of mind of the hero, and the whole sense of life on an infamous slave ship. Such things are the life of a novel; and when they appear in Roots, they are the life of someone else's novel.[15]

After a five-week trial in the federal district court, Courlander and Haley settled the case with a financial settlement and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book Roots."[16]

During the trial, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Ward stated: "Copying there is, period."[17] In a later interview with BBC Television, Judge Ward said that Haley had "perpetrated a hoax on the public".[18]
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Odd. I don't remember seeing that on the news back then.

ACBass · Jan 23, 2013

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Ktfishhunt · Jan 23, 2013

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Hunt22-250 · Jan 23, 2013

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Whodat · Jan 23, 2013

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Alex Haley: The Lance Armstrong of the literary world

Alan Proud Infidel

ACBass Well-Known Member

Ktfishhunt Well-Known Member

Hunt22-250 Scuba Steve

Whodat Exile

2016 Carhartt College Southern Regional Lake Martin - Alexander City, AL, Feb 4 - 6, 2016

Responce from Lamar Alexander

R.I.P Alex Karras

Alex scores twice!

Welcome haleyhumphrey

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