Harold Courlander (September 18, 1908 – March 15, 1996) was an American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist and 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 Native American cultures.

With the prize money from the Hopwood Awards, Courlander took his first field trip to Haiti, inspired by the writings of William Buehler Seabrook.

In the 1960s, Courlander began a series of field trips to the American Southwest to study the oral literature and culture of the Hopi Indians.

From 1942 to 1943, during World War II, Harold Courlander served as a historian for the Air Transport Command for the Douglas Aircraft Project 19 in Gura, Eritrea.

[2] Courlander then worked as a writer and editor for the Office of War Information in New York City and Bombay, India, from 1943 to 1946.

[3] Courlander's pre-trial memorandum in the copyright infringement lawsuit claimed: Defendant Haley had access to and substantially copied from The African.

Haley's novel begins before the American Revolution, depicts disease striking down the slaves before they could revolt, and shows the ship arriving successfully in the British colony of Maryland.

For example, strikingly similar language is used to describe an infestation of lice on the slave ship:[5] In his Expert Witness Report submitted to federal court, Professor of English Michael Wood of Columbia University stated: The evidence of copying from The African in both the novel and the television dramatization of Roots is clear and irrefutable.

However, Alex Haley maintained throughout the trial that he had not even heard of The African until the year after Roots was published, and speculated that someone else had given him the photocopied passages.

Bruchac remembered driving home three miles to fetch his own copy of The African and give it to Haley, who promised to read it "on the plane.