The gardening catalogs started arriving this week – right on time.
In the gray of winter, they represent so much promise, whether you have six acres or six inches of dirt. This time of year, it’s fun to imagine what will come from the soil months from now – but in the meantime, read “Alex Haley and the Books That Changed a Nation” by Robert J. Norrell, and see how a career can grow.
Born in 1921 into a wealthy Irish-African American family, Palmer Alexander Murray Haley was raised mostly by his grandmother, who instilled in him a love of storytelling. As an adult, Haley would recall hiding behind rocking chairs on his grandparents’ front porch, listening to tales of “the African” and of slavery.
In 1939, after rejecting his professorial father’s ideal of an education, Haley (by now, calling himself “Alex”) joined the Coast Guard. Because of racial mores of the time, few onboard jobs were open to African American men, so he worked as a steward while also searching for assignments as a magazine writer. Ultimately, he came under the command of a “boss” who demanded help with letter-writing; his skills honed, Haley landed a job as a press officer for the Coast Guard.
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