Alex Haley and the Autobiography of Malcolm X

This thesis provides insight into Alex Haley's writing of the Autobiography of Malcolm X, first arguing that it resembles Haley's earlier Playboy Interview with Malcolm X via Kenneth Burke's form of rhetoric knows as dramatism. Second, through his technique, Haley practically invented a new form of journalism that shares many clements with a relatively new genre of reportage known as literary journalism. Third, a look at the initial reviews of the Autobiography were summarized. Fourth, the unique collaborative process between Malcolm X and Alex Haley explored. Finally, Alex Haley's own correspondence was studied to reveal firsthand the process of the book's writing.

These exercises tell a story of Alex Haley's six-year struggle with the "as told to" Autobiography of Malcolm X. It concludes that Haley's challenge was to create a humanized Malcolm X, and he did so building on the same method used in his Playboy Interview with Malcolm X, a method that Haley himself pioneered and is similar to literary journalism. He created a drama of everyday human experience through a collaborative venture with Malcolm X. In the end, Alex Haley facilitated a tragic hero of the 1960's civil rights struggle who is part cultural icon, part "Everyman."