Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Encyclopedia
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel
written by Alex Haley
and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte
, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots
(1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent 46 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including 22 weeks in that list's top spot.
Following the success of the original novel and the miniseries, Haley was sued by author Harold Courlander
, who asserted that Roots was plagiarized
from his own novel The African, published nine years prior to Roots in 1967. The resulting trial ended with an out-of-court settlement and Haley's admission that some passages within Roots had been copied from Courlander's work. Separately, researchers refuted Haley's claims that, as the basis for Roots, he had successfully traced his own ancestry back through slavery to a specific individual and village in Africa.
in 1865—Alex Haley purported to have traced his family history back to "the African," Kunta Kinte
, captured by members of a contentious tribe and sold to slave traders in 1767. For generations, each of Kunta's enslaved descendants passed down an oral history of Kunta's experiences as a free man in Gambia, along with the African words he taught them. Haley researched African village customs, slave-trading and the history of African Americans in America—including a visit to the griot
(oral historian) of his ancestor's African village. He created a colorful and fictional history of his family from the mid-eighteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, which led him back to his heartland of Africa.
Published in October 1976 amid significant advance expectations, Roots was immediately successful, garnering a slew of positive reviews and debuting at #5 of The New York Times Best Seller list
(with The Times choosing to classify it as non-fiction). By mid-November, it had risen to the #1 spot on the list. The television adaptation of the book aired in January 1977, further fueling book sales. Within seven months of its release, Roots had sold over 1.5 million copies.
In total, Roots spent 22 weeks at the #1 spot on The Times list, including each of the first 18 weeks of 1977, before falling to #3 on May 8. It did not fall off of the list entirely until August 7. Ultimately, it was on the list for a total 46 weeks. Together, the success of the novel and its 1977 television adaptation, sparked an explosion of interest in the fields of genealogy
and researching family histories.
Haley earned a Pulitzer Prize
special award in 1977 for Roots and the television miniseries garnered many awards, including nine Emmys and a Peabody
.
in separate lawsuits, each filed against Haley in the spring of 1977, by Harold Courlander
and Margaret Walker Alexander. Courlander charged that Roots was copied largely from his novel The African. Alexander claimed that her novel, Jubilee, had been plagiarized by Roots. Legal proceedings in each case were concluded late in 1978. Courlander's suit was settled out of court for $650,000 and an acknowledgment from Haley that certain passages within Roots were copied from The African. Haley claimed that the appropriation of Courlander's passages had been unintentional. Alexander's case was dismissed by the court, which, in comparing the content of Roots with that of Jubliee, found that "no actionable similarities exist between the works."
Critics challenged aspects of the story which Haley claimed to be true. Although Haley acknowledged the novel was primarily a work of fiction, he claimed that his ancestor was Kunta Kinte, an African taken from the village of Juffure in what is now The Gambia
. He said that Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery where he was given the name Toby. While held by John Waller, Kinte had a daughter named Kizzy, who was Haley's great-great-great grandmother. Haley said that he had identified the slave ship that transported Kunta Kinte from Africa to North America in 1767.
In the concluding chapter of Roots Alex Haley said:
Haley said that most of the dialogue and necessary incidents are novelized, based on what he knew took place and what the research led him to feel took place.
The genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and historian Gary B. Mills revisited Haley's research and concluded that his claims were not true. According to the Millses, the slave named Toby who was owned by John Waller could be definitively shown to have been in North America as early as 1762. They said that Toby died years before the supposed date of birth of Kizzy. Haley responded by criticizing his detractors' reliance upon written records in their evaluation of his work, contending that such records were "sporadic" and frequently inaccurate with regard to items such as slave births and ownership transactions. Haley asserted that for African-American genealogy, "well-kept oral history is without question the best source."
Concerns were raised about the trustworthiness of Kebba Fofana from The Gambia, whom Haley had cited as a significant source. He said Fofana was a griot
in Juffure, who, during Haley's visit there, confirmed the tale of the disappearance of Kunta Kinte. An investigation by Mark Ottaway of The Sunday Times
found that Fofana was not a genuine griot and that he had had advance awareness of Haley's pending visit. He may have been coached to relate a story matching Haley's chronicle. In subsequent re-tellings, details of Fofana's story indeed failed to match that previous account. Haley did not respond directly to Ottaway's comments, but said that his article was "unwarranted, unfair and unjust", and added that he had no reason to think Fofana unreliable.
Harvard University
professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
is a personal friend of Haley's but acknowledged doubts about his claims, saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship. It was an important event because it captured everyone's imagination."
The cast of the miniseries included LeVar Burton
as Kunta Kinte
, Leslie Uggams
as Kizzy and Ben Vereen
as Chicken George. A 14-hour sequel, Roots: The Next Generations
, aired in 1979, featuring the leading African-American actors of the day.
In December 1988, ABC aired a two-hour made-for-TV movie: Roots: The Gift
. Based on characters from the book, it starred LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, Avery Brooks
as Cletus Moyer, Kate Mulgrew
as bounty hunter Hattie Carraway, and Tim Russ
as house slave Marcellus (coincidentally, all four actors have become prominent as leading actors in the Star Trek
franchise).
In August 2006, author Ilyasah Shabazz
, daughter of Malcolm X
, recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of Alex Haley's books to commemorate Haley's 85th birthday.
In May 2007, BBC America
released Roots as an audiobook narrated by Avery Brooks
. The release coincided with Vanguard Press's publication of a new paperback edition of the book, which had gone out of print in 2004, and with Warner Home Video's release of a 30th anniversary DVD boxed set of the mini-series.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Alex Haley
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...
and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte is the central character of the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley, and of the television miniseries Roots, based on the book. Haley described his book as faction - a mixture of fact and fiction...
, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots
Roots (TV miniseries)
Roots is a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's fictional novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still...
(1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent 46 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including 22 weeks in that list's top spot.
Following the success of the original novel and the miniseries, Haley was sued by author Harold Courlander
Harold Courlander
Harold Courlander was an American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, an expert in the study of Haitian life. The author of 35 books and plays and numerous scholarly articles, Courlander specialized in the study of African, Caribbean, Afro-American , and American Indian cultures...
, who asserted that Roots was plagiarized
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
from his own novel The African, published nine years prior to Roots in 1967. The resulting trial ended with an out-of-court settlement and Haley's admission that some passages within Roots had been copied from Courlander's work. Separately, researchers refuted Haley's claims that, as the basis for Roots, he had successfully traced his own ancestry back through slavery to a specific individual and village in Africa.
Plot introduction
Brought up on the stories of his elderly female relatives—including his Grandmother Cynthia, whose father was emancipated from slaverySlavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in 1865—Alex Haley purported to have traced his family history back to "the African," Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte is the central character of the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley, and of the television miniseries Roots, based on the book. Haley described his book as faction - a mixture of fact and fiction...
, captured by members of a contentious tribe and sold to slave traders in 1767. For generations, each of Kunta's enslaved descendants passed down an oral history of Kunta's experiences as a free man in Gambia, along with the African words he taught them. Haley researched African village customs, slave-trading and the history of African Americans in America—including a visit to the griot
Griot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...
(oral historian) of his ancestor's African village. He created a colorful and fictional history of his family from the mid-eighteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, which led him back to his heartland of Africa.
Characters in "Roots"
- Kunta KinteKunta KinteKunta Kinte is the central character of the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley, and of the television miniseries Roots, based on the book. Haley described his book as faction - a mixture of fact and fiction...
– original protagonist: a young man of the Mandinka peopleMandinka peopleThe Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....
, grows up in the GambiaThe GambiaThe Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....
in a small village called Juffure and is raised as a practising MuslimMuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
before being captured and enslaved. Renamed Toby - John Waller – planterPlanterPlanter may refer to:*A flower pot or box for plants**Jardinière, one such type of pot*A person or object engaged in sowing seeds**Planter , implement towed behind a tractor, used for sowing crops through a field*A coloniser...
, who buys Kunta (called John Reynolds in the TV series) - Dr. William Waller – doctor of medicine and John's brother: buys Kunta from him (called William Reynolds in the TV series)
- Belle Waller – cook to the doctor; Kunta marries Belle (called Belle Reynolds in the TV series)
- Kizzy Waller – daughter of Kunta and Belle (called Kizzy Reynolds in the TV series)
- Missy Anne – Dr. Waller's niece, who lives on the plantation but visits Dr Waller regularly. She befriends Kizzy and teaches her the basics of reading/writing by playing "school".
- Tom Lea – slave owner in North Carolina to whom Kizzy is sold (called Tom Moore in the TV series)
- George Lea – son to Kizzy and Tom Lea, he is called "Chicken George" (last name is Moore, in the TV series)
- Matilda – whom George marries
- Tom Murray – son of Chicken George and Matilda (called Tom Harvey in the TV series)
- Cynthia – the youngest of Tom and Irene's eight children (grand daughter of Chicken George)
- Bertha – one of Cynthia's children; mother of Alex Haley
- Simon Alexander Haley – professor and husband of Bertha; father of Alex Haley
- Alex Haley – author of the book and central character for last 30 pages; great-great-great-great-grandson (7 generations) of Kunta Kinte.
Reception
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
(with The Times choosing to classify it as non-fiction). By mid-November, it had risen to the #1 spot on the list. The television adaptation of the book aired in January 1977, further fueling book sales. Within seven months of its release, Roots had sold over 1.5 million copies.
In total, Roots spent 22 weeks at the #1 spot on The Times list, including each of the first 18 weeks of 1977, before falling to #3 on May 8. It did not fall off of the list entirely until August 7. Ultimately, it was on the list for a total 46 weeks. Together, the success of the novel and its 1977 television adaptation, sparked an explosion of interest in the fields of genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
and researching family histories.
Haley earned a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
special award in 1977 for Roots and the television miniseries garnered many awards, including nine Emmys and a Peabody
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
.
Plagiarism
The exceptional success of Roots was marred, however, by charges of plagiarismPlagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
in separate lawsuits, each filed against Haley in the spring of 1977, by Harold Courlander
Harold Courlander
Harold Courlander was an American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, an expert in the study of Haitian life. The author of 35 books and plays and numerous scholarly articles, Courlander specialized in the study of African, Caribbean, Afro-American , and American Indian cultures...
and Margaret Walker Alexander. Courlander charged that Roots was copied largely from his novel The African. Alexander claimed that her novel, Jubilee, had been plagiarized by Roots. Legal proceedings in each case were concluded late in 1978. Courlander's suit was settled out of court for $650,000 and an acknowledgment from Haley that certain passages within Roots were copied from The African. Haley claimed that the appropriation of Courlander's passages had been unintentional. Alexander's case was dismissed by the court, which, in comparing the content of Roots with that of Jubliee, found that "no actionable similarities exist between the works."
Inaccuracies
Certain minor conflicts arise in language used by characters in the book. In the earlier section of the book based in Africa, Omoro explains to his son Kunta that the toubob or white-run ships fire a 19-gun (cannon) salute to the local king on arrival. But, in the rest of the section, the locals don't know about guns, which they describe as strange “firesticks”. A cannon on the slave ship Lord Ligonier is described as a mystery to the captives. In other cases, the slaves refer to the “First Continental Congress” underway. It would have been unlikely for it to be called the first congress, as no one yet knew there would be a second.Critics challenged aspects of the story which Haley claimed to be true. Although Haley acknowledged the novel was primarily a work of fiction, he claimed that his ancestor was Kunta Kinte, an African taken from the village of Juffure in what is now The Gambia
The Gambia
The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....
. He said that Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery where he was given the name Toby. While held by John Waller, Kinte had a daughter named Kizzy, who was Haley's great-great-great grandmother. Haley said that he had identified the slave ship that transported Kunta Kinte from Africa to North America in 1767.
In the concluding chapter of Roots Alex Haley said:
Haley said that most of the dialogue and necessary incidents are novelized, based on what he knew took place and what the research led him to feel took place.
The genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and historian Gary B. Mills revisited Haley's research and concluded that his claims were not true. According to the Millses, the slave named Toby who was owned by John Waller could be definitively shown to have been in North America as early as 1762. They said that Toby died years before the supposed date of birth of Kizzy. Haley responded by criticizing his detractors' reliance upon written records in their evaluation of his work, contending that such records were "sporadic" and frequently inaccurate with regard to items such as slave births and ownership transactions. Haley asserted that for African-American genealogy, "well-kept oral history is without question the best source."
Concerns were raised about the trustworthiness of Kebba Fofana from The Gambia, whom Haley had cited as a significant source. He said Fofana was a griot
Griot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...
in Juffure, who, during Haley's visit there, confirmed the tale of the disappearance of Kunta Kinte. An investigation by Mark Ottaway of The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
found that Fofana was not a genuine griot and that he had had advance awareness of Haley's pending visit. He may have been coached to relate a story matching Haley's chronicle. In subsequent re-tellings, details of Fofana's story indeed failed to match that previous account. Haley did not respond directly to Ottaway's comments, but said that his article was "unwarranted, unfair and unjust", and added that he had no reason to think Fofana unreliable.
Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...
is a personal friend of Haley's but acknowledged doubts about his claims, saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship. It was an important event because it captured everyone's imagination."
Scholarship
- Gerber, David A. “Haley’s Roots and Our Own: An Inquiry Into the Nature of a Popular Phenomenon”, Journal of Ethnic Studies 5.3 (Fall 1977): 87-111.
- Hudson, Michelle. "The Effect of 'Roots' and the Bicentennial on Genealogical Interest among Patrons of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History," Journal of Mississippi History 1991 53(4): 321-336
- Ryan, Tim A. Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery since Gone with the Wind. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2008.
- Skaggs, Merrill Maguire. “Roots: A New Black Myth”, Southern Quarterly 17. 1 (Fall 1978): 42-50.
- Taylor, Helen. “‘The Griot from Tennessee’: The Saga of Alex Haley’s Roots”, Critical Quarterly 37.2 (Summer 1995): 46-62.
Television and audio adaptations
Roots was made into a hugely popular television miniseries that aired over eight consecutive nights in January 1977. ABC network television executives chose to "dump" the series into a string of airings rather than space out the broadcasts, because they were uncertain how the public would respond to the controversial, racially charged themes of the show. The series garnered enormous ratings and became an overnight sensation. Approximately 130 million Americans tuned in at some time during the eight broadcasts. The concluding episode on January 30, 1977 has been ranked as the third most watched telecast of all time by the Nielsen corporation.The cast of the miniseries included LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. , professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley...
as Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte is the central character of the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley, and of the television miniseries Roots, based on the book. Haley described his book as faction - a mixture of fact and fiction...
, Leslie Uggams
Leslie Uggams
Leslie Uggams is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her work in Hallelujah, Baby! She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.-Singing:...
as Kizzy and Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.- Early years :...
as Chicken George. A 14-hour sequel, Roots: The Next Generations
Roots: The Next Generations
Roots: The Next Generations is a 1979 television miniseries that continues the story of the family of Alex Haley from the 1880s, and their life in Henning, Tennessee, to the 1960s, with Haley researching his family history and his travels to Africa to learn of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte...
, aired in 1979, featuring the leading African-American actors of the day.
In December 1988, ABC aired a two-hour made-for-TV movie: Roots: The Gift
Roots: The Gift
Roots: The Gift is a 1988 television film. It is the third installment of the Roots series, which traces the maternal family history of African American author Alex Haley, starting with his fourth great-grandfather Kunta Kinte. The film premiered on ABC on December 11, 1988, with AT&T as the sole...
. Based on characters from the book, it starred LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, Avery Brooks
Avery Brooks
Avery Franklin Brooks is an American actor, television director, jazz musician, opera singer and college professor. Brooks is perhaps best known for his television roles as Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spinoff A Man Called Hawk, and in the...
as Cletus Moyer, Kate Mulgrew
Kate Mulgrew
Katherine Kiernan Maria "Kate" Mulgrew is an American actress, most noted for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway and Ryan's Hope as Mary Ryan...
as bounty hunter Hattie Carraway, and Tim Russ
Tim Russ
Timothy Darrell "Tim" Russ is an American actor, film director, screenwriter and musician. He is known for his roles on Star Trek: Voyager, as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, Samantha Who?, as Frank, and on the Nickelodeon live-action teen sitcom iCarly, as Principal Franklin, a recurring...
as house slave Marcellus (coincidentally, all four actors have become prominent as leading actors in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
franchise).
In August 2006, author Ilyasah Shabazz
Ilyasah Shabazz
Ilyasah Shabazz is the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. She is the author of a memoir, Growing Up X, and a motivational speaker.-Early life:Shabazz was born in Queens, New York, on July 22, 1962...
, daughter of Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
, recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of Alex Haley's books to commemorate Haley's 85th birthday.
In May 2007, BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
released Roots as an audiobook narrated by Avery Brooks
Avery Brooks
Avery Franklin Brooks is an American actor, television director, jazz musician, opera singer and college professor. Brooks is perhaps best known for his television roles as Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spinoff A Man Called Hawk, and in the...
. The release coincided with Vanguard Press's publication of a new paperback edition of the book, which had gone out of print in 2004, and with Warner Home Video's release of a 30th anniversary DVD boxed set of the mini-series.
Release details
- 1976, USA, Doubleday Books (ISBN 0-385-03787-2), Pub date 12 September 1976, hardback (First edition)
- 1977, UK, Hutchinson (ISBN 0-09-129680-3), Pub date ? April 1977, hardback
- 1978, UK, Picador (ISBN 0-330-25301-8), Pub date 14 April 1978, paperback
- 1980, USA, Bantam Books (ISBN 0-685-01405-3), Pub date ? November 1980, paperback (Teacher's guide)
- 1982, UK, GK Hall (ISBN 0-8161-6639-0), Pub date ? December 1982, hardback
- 1985, USA, Vintage (ISBN 0-09-952200-4), Pub date ? May 1985, paperback
- 1992, USA, Bantam Doubleday Dell (ISBN 0-440-17464-3), Pub date 31 December 1992, paperback
- 1994, USA, Vintage (ISBN 0-09-936281-3), Pub date 21 January 1994, paperback
- 1999, USA, Rebound by Sagebrush (ISBN 0-8085-1103-3), Pub date ? October 1999, hardback (Library edition)
- 2000, USA, Wings (ISBN 0-517-20860-1), Pub date ? September 2000, hardback
- 2006, USA, Buccaneer Books (ISBN 1-56849-471-8), Pub date 30 August 2006, hardback
- 2007, USA, Vanguard Press (ISBN 1593154496), Pub date 22 May 2007, paperback
See also
- African American literatureAfrican American literatureAfrican-American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. The genre traces its origins to the works of such late 18th century writers as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with slave narratives and the Harlem...