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- Publisher
- Penn State University Press
- Copyright
- Copyright © Penn State University Press
- ISSN
- 1528-4212
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
book reviews Africa Writes Back: The African Writers Series & the Launch of African Literature. By James Currey. Portraits and other photographs by George Hallett. Oxford: James Currey Ltd, 2008. xxxii + 318 pp. Hardback, $55.00; paperback, $26.95. I doubt if there is any student of African literature who has never heard of the African Writers Series, through which Heinemann Educational Books introduced and popularized dozens of African writers in Africa and around the world. In Africa Writes Back James Currey tells the story of the Series, using correspondence between the publisher and the writers, as well as reports by manuscript reviewers. These documents are held in the library of the University of Reading, thanks to Mike Bott, the archivist, who persuaded several leading British publishers to deposit their archives there. Although Heinemann Educational Books had published several African titles starting with Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in 1958, the African Writers Series started in 1962 with Achebe as Editorial Adviser. Achebe recalls that the "launching of the Heinemann's African Writers Series was like the umpire's signal for which African writers had been waiting on the starting line" (1). Achebe proudly notes that this Series generated a vast
Journal
Comparative Literature Studies – Penn State University Press
Published: Jun 11, 2009