The Playboy Interviews

by Alex Haley

Everyone knows Alex Haley as the world-renowned author of the international bestseller ROOTS, and as the writer who collaborated with Malcolm X on his historic autobiography. What many people don't know is that Alex Haley began his professional writing career as a journalist. It was his experience in this arena that earned him the plum assignment as Playboy's first -- and foremost -- interviewer.

Witness Haley's work with the pre-Ali Cassius Clay, in which the posture of the young rebel fell away and a sensitive, intelligent young man emerged. He lured Malcolm X beyond his scathing Black Muslim rhetoric to reveal the agile, perceptive mind of a charismatic leader. With Johnny Carson, Haley revealed the man behind the mask of a charming television raconteur. And, in a devasting interview with George Lincoln Rockwell, the self-appointed fuhrer of the American Nazi Party, Haley deftly exposed the frightening heart and soul of the twisted man and his racist ideology.

A fascinating slice of recent history, an extraordinarily candid collection of celebrity interviews and personal reminiscences, ALEX HALEY: THE PLAYBOY INTERVIEWS anthologizes for the first time a gifted writer's finest work at its controversial and informative best.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

503 pages, Paperback

First published June 8, 1993

About the author

Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the latter of which he wrote in collaboration with Malcolm X.

Reviews

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

🕊 I wanna getawayyyyyyy.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Haley had a rendez-vous with history. He was there to record the twentieth century. Haley conducted the first Playboy interview, a masterful 1962 portrait of jazz giant Miles Davis in all his musical genius and rage against racism, setting the gold standard for what was to follow in the tumultuous Sixties. Playboy assigned him to dig out "the hate that hate produced" by talking to Malcolm X and what emerged was a disturbed and brilliant young man straining under the shadow his mixed-race heritage ("I hate every-drop of white-blood in me") and upset at being dubbed "the majordomo" to Elijah Muhammad. Haley caught up with Cassius Clay right after his conversion to the Nation of Islam and provoked him by asking if "being a loudmouth was his true self or just an act" and probing his new religion. Haley: "What made you want to join the Black Muslims?" Clay: "Nothing and no one made me. I think for myself". American Nazi Party fuhrer George Lincoln Rockwell put a gun by his side while speaking to Haley of white supremacy and shipping all Blacks back to Africa; "this will apply to you too, by the way. I like you, but I can't make any exceptions". Haley caught the exact flavor of Martin Luther King in conversation and why he resonated with so many people: "His answers were heartfelt and eloquent yet his mood detached, like that of a solemn businessman". Interviews with Jim Brown and Sammy Davis Jr. photograph the dilemma of being a Black superstar in white America. A diamond of a book for everyone from Playboy aficionados to historians.

[Cazna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel so privelaged to have been given a copy of this book and I re- read it often for inspiration in my life. How I wish that journalism was such now. Such clever and brilliant questions to people who have shaped many area's of our world. Simply brilliant! Now I want the others.

[Dammions Darden]

great interviews, this is why Alex Haley is one of the greatest authors of all time.

[Justlesa Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting to see his interview techniques and the interviews with him. Maybe now, I'll make it through one of his books lol

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Haley had such a wonderful way of making his work alive and real. He captured each person's persona and presented it in their unique voice. This was a great read.