Courlander refused to reveal the amount, citing a pledge of secrecy made by both sides as part of the settlement. Haley spent the afternoon on an airplane and could not be reached for comment. He said he dumped these in a carton and used some of them without knowing their source.Ĭourlander's suit cited 81 mostly brief passages allegedly similar to his novel and asked for half the profits from "Roots." Haley's lawyer and publisher delcined to estimates his earnings from "Rotts," but his royalties had topped $2.6 million on hardcover sales before the paperback appeared.Ĭourtroom sources placed the amount of the settlement at approximately $500,000. Haley said this occurred because he helped to support himself by lecturing during the 12 years he worked on "Roots," and often members of the audience would pass him slips of paper with suggestions. Haley testified last month that although he had not read "The African" before writing "Roots," three brief passages from Courlander's work had been inadvertently incorporated in Ahley's work. The out-of-court settlement came in a copyright infringement suit brought by Harold Courlander of Bethesda in U.S. Washington Post Staff Writers Contributing to this story was Washington Post special correspondent John Kennedy December 15, 1978Īlex Haley agreed to pay a Bethesda, Md., author about $500,000 today and publicly expressed regred that portions of a 1967 novel called "The African" had "found their way" into Haley's best-selling book, "Roots."
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