who wrote roots

The book Roots: The Saga of an American Family was written by Alex Haley, an American author and journalist, and first published in 1976.

Haley based Roots on the oral history of his own family, tracing their story back to his ancestor Kunta Kinte, an 18th‑century Mandinka man captured in The Gambia and sold into slavery in North America. The book became a major bestseller, won a special Pulitzer Prize, and was later adapted into the landmark 1977 television miniseries Roots.