celebrity.estateAn EGRET.LAW propertyWorld map3D timeline
Home / Literature and art / Alex Haley died owing about $1.5 million, his estate auctioned his Pulitzer for $50,000,…
Case file s1825 · Literature and art · 1992
See 1992 on the timelineSee it in 3D
1992
Alex Haley: Alex Haley
Alex Haley. University of Texas at Arlington Photograph Collection. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
10 February 1992
Place
Seattle, Washington · United States
Field
author (Roots, The Autobiography of Malcolm X) · Literature and writing on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law (Tennessee) · Common law
Historical event
Roots (1976) and the 1977 television series
Member of
Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco (Wikidata)
Literature and artBrothers and sisters in courtBurned papers and destroyed workPostwarNorth AmericaUnited States

Alex Haley died owing about $1.5 million, his estate auctioned his Pulitzer for $50,000, and Betty Shabazz sued over the Malcolm X manuscript

Haley died of a heart attack at 70. Reports put his debts at about $1.5 million (Deseret News) or $2 million (Phoenix New Times), with a $950,000 mortgage on his 125-acre farm in Norris, Tennessee. His brother George, the executor, held a three-day auction on 1 to 3 October 1992 at the University of Tennessee conference center. His Pulitzer Prize sold for $50,000, the first Pulitzer reported sold. The manuscript of The Autobiography of Malcolm X sold for $100,000 and working drafts of three cut chapters for $21,500. In November 1992 Betty Shabazz sued George Haley for at least $60,750 plus punitive damages, alleging the manuscript was registered as jointly owned by Haley and Malcolm X. Meanwhile, in Knoxville Chancery Court, widow Myran Haley sued the estate over a January 1991 property settlement, while Alex's first wife Nannie claimed their Mexican divorce was never filed. About 17 lawyers were involved. Detroit lawyer Gregory Reed bought the manuscript; in July 2018 it went to the Schomburg Center in New York after Reed's bankruptcy. Outcomes of the Shabazz and probate suits were not found†.

What the law took from it

An author with large earnings and a mortgaged estate leaves heirs a forced sale and competing claimants.

Sources
  1. stuff.mit.eduScholarship
  2. Deseret NewsPress
  3. phoenixnewtimes.comPress
  4. wral.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Alex Haley died owing about $1.5 million, his estate auctioned his Pulitzer for $50,000, and Betty Shabazz sued over the Malcolm X manuscript,” story s1825, https://www.celebrity.estate/alex-haley-1992, updated 30 October 2026.

Related cases

Each one shares a person, a kind of fight, a subject, a period or a place with this case. The line under each headline says which.

Patsy Cline: Patsy Cline promotional photograph, circa 1957.1963 · near Camden, Tennessee (plane crash)Patsy Cline's brother sued her sister over Patsy's stage clothes, and a judge ordered the dresses sold to pay the lawyerShared: brothers and sisters in court; burned papers and destroyed work; 29 years apart; also North AmericaPatsy Cline was 30 when her plane went down in Tennessee. Her mother, Hilda Hensley, sewed many of her stage costumes and kept her clothing and papers in Winchester, Virginia. Hilda Hensley died around late 2000.oocities.org and 2 moreEmily Dickinson: Black-white photograph of Emily Dickinson21886 · Amherst, MassachusettsEmily Dickinson's poems were edited by her brother's mistress, and her sister sued the mistress for a strip of landShared: brothers and sisters in court; burned papers and destroyed work; also Literature and art; also North AmericaAfter Emily Dickinson died, her sister Lavinia found hundreds of unpublished poems. Mabel Loomis Todd, the lover of Emily's brother Austin, edited the first published volumes in the 1890s.archive.emilydickinson.org and 3 moreAyn Rand: Photo portrait of Russian-American writer Ayn Rand used for the first-edition back cover of her novel The Fountainhead (1943).1982 · New YorkAyn Rand's heir kept the first and last pages of The Fountainhead manuscript; the Library of Congress took them from his home in January 2002Shared: burned papers and destroyed work; also Literature and art; 10 years apart; also North AmericaAyn Rand died in 1982 and left her papers and estate to Leonard Peikoff, who as executor controls the copyrights to all her works except Anthem.peikoff.com and 2 moreJack Kerouac: Kerouac by Palumbo 2 (cropped)1969 · St. Petersburg, FloridaA Florida judge ruled that the will giving Jack Kerouac's estate to his widow's family was forged, and the ruling changed nothingShared: burned papers and destroyed work; also Literature and art; 23 years apart; also North AmericaKerouac left his estate to his mother, Gabrielle. She died in 1973. A will dated 1973 in her name left everything to Stella Sampas Kerouac, Jack's third wife.nbcmiami.com and 3 moreGore Vidal: GoreVidalVanVechten1 (cropped)2012 · Hollywood Hills, Los AngelesGore Vidal changed his trust in 2011 to leave everything to Harvard, and his half-sister and nephew suedShared: brothers and sisters in court; also Literature and art; 20 years apart; also North AmericaGore Vidal's original will left everything to Howard Austen, his partner of 53 years, who died in 2003. In 2011 Vidal amended his trust to name Harvard University sole heir, though he never attended it.washingtonian.com and 3 moreHarper Lee: Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960)2016 · Monroeville, AlabamaHarper Lee's second novel was published when she was frail and her lawyer controlled her affairs; her will stayed sealed until The New York Times suedShared: burned papers and destroyed work; also Literature and art; 24 years apart; also North AmericaLee published one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1960. In 2015 HarperCollins published Go Set a Watchman, an earlier manuscript.thebookseller.com and 3 more

Where this case sits

Literature and artBrothers and sisters in courtBurned papers and destroyed workPostwarNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States