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, which 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.