Roots' Roots

Alex Haley's book about his black heritage, Roots, won him a Pulitzer Prize, $2.6 million in hard-cover revenues alone, and his share of a much acclaimed television series. But Harold Courlander, 70, a white novelist living in Bethesda, Md., believed the book had more roots than Haley was willing to acknowledge. In Federal District Court in Manhattan, he accused Haley of plagiarizing passages from his 1967 book, The African. Courlander demanded that Haley turn over to him more than half the profits from Roots*

Judge Robert Ward noted that there were significant similarities between the two books. In The African, for example, Courlander described the hunter: "He must hear what the farmer cannot hear. He must smell what others cannot smell ... his eyes must pierce the darkness." In Roots, Haley wrote: "He must hear what others cannot, smell what others cannot. He must see through the darkness." Courlander cited 81 such passages. Haley's defense: during the years he wrote Roots, students and others who listened to his lectures often handed him notes and research without citing the sources.

Last week Haley settled out of court.He agreed to pay Courlander a reported $500,000. Admitted Haley: "Somewhere, somebody gave me something that came from The African. That's the best honest explanation I can give."

*Black Author Margaret Walker Alexander filed a similar suit against Haley, charging plagiarism from her book Jubilee, but a New York federal judge ruled against her.

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