Chinua Achebe, the African Writers Series and the Establishment of African Literature

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Chinua Achebe, the African Writers Series and the Establishment of African Literature
Author:	Currey, James
Year:	2003
Periodical:	African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:	102
Issue:	409
Period:	October
Pages:	575-585
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	publishing literature Literature, Mass Media and the Press
About person:	Albert Chinualumogu Achebe (1930-2013)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518514
Abstract:	In the list of 'Africa's 100 Best Books' published in 2002, over a quarter of the books had been published in the African Writers Series. Chinua Achebe is renowned for his novel 'Things Fall Apart' (1958) which has sold close on 10 million copies. Much less well remembered is his creative role as the first Editorial Adviser to the Series in encouraging new writers from Africa. He firmly pressed Heinemann Educational Books to publish writing of quality without regard to problems of sex, religion or politics. Thus it was that an educational publisher established a general market in Africa for poetry, novels, plays and political memoirs. As Heinemann was based in London, it provided an international market for African writers in Europe, North America and the rest of the world. The author of this article was director of the African Writers Series from 1967 to 1984. Ref., sum. [Journal abstract]