Prior to his massive success with Roots Alex Haley was another unknown struggling writer until the Santa Barbara Writers Conference founder Barnaby Conrad connected him with the right people and became responsible for getting Alex published.

Barnaby was a bestseller at the age of twenty nine for his novel Matador and he bought a bar in San Francisco that he named The Matador after his book and his career as a matador.

Before his success, Alex went into the Matador and asked Barnaby if he could touch his arm. When Barnaby said yes, Alex did so and said to Barnaby, "Thank you, I always wanted to touch a real writer."