Alex Palmer Haley.

Alex Palmer Haley
Alex Haley was born in 1925 in Ithaca, New York where his father taught agriculture. When he was quite young the family moved to Henning, Tennessee, where Alex grew up hearing stories of his ancestors from his grandmother.
Surprisingly, Alex did not do well in school or in college and in WWII Alex joined the Coast Guard and became a messboy. He submitted stories, for publication to magazines only to receive countless rejection slips. Through all his writings, and rejections he learned the rules of writing. In 1959, after twenty years of service he left the Coast Guard to…