While this highlighted the different genres, all books in the series during this period were numbered to give a clear indication that they belonged to a collection of works by African writers. Orange for fiction, blue for non-fiction, and green for poetry and drama. Six AWS covers, showing the shift in design from 1962 to 1993īetween 19 all the books in the African Writers Series were colour coded. Novels would make up the bulk of the series, but it extended to poetry, anthologies, short stories, autobiographies, drama, non fiction, and oral traditions. Some exceptions to this are early books by Flora Nwapa and Buchi Emecheta. In the first two decades nearly all were men and it was only in the 1990s that books by women began to appear regularly. Over 80 titles were published in the series by Nigerian writers, who were followed by South Africans, Kenyans, Ghanaians, and Zimbabweans. This approach provided opportunities for authors from across most of Africa.
This started with Ngũgĩ, who helped to expand the reach of the series into East Africa. Īt the same time, they published new authors. This was followed by translations from Portuguese, Zulu, Swahili, Acholi, Sesotho, Afrikaans, Luganda, and Arabic. But it became clear very quickly that there were not enough works in English, so translations began to be made from French of works by Ferdinand Oyono, Mongo Beti and others. The decision to reissue paperback editions of English language hardbacks followed the early success of Things Fall Apart and continued for many years. The African Writers Series reissued paperback editions of works previously only available as more expensive hardbacks, translated books that had been published in other languages, and published the first works of unknown writers. Ģ003 – Heinemann announces no new titles would be added to the series. Ģ002 – Only 70 of the over 300 titles in the series remain in print. ġ994 – Abdulrazak Gurnah appointed as editorial advisor. ġ993 – Adele Maja-Pearce appointed general editor.
ġ992 – Caroline Avens begins to oversee the series, reducing the backlist and starting to publish more new authors. ġ986 – the series is relaunched by Vicky Unwin, who targets the western academic market due to the drop in spending in the African educational market. 15 of the 270 titles in the series are put out of print. ġ984 – James Currey steps down after new management reduces new publications to only one or two a year. ġ983 – Heinemann Group is taken over for the first time and goes through a series of takeovers in the coming years. Sambrook, Currey, Higo and Chakava take over editorial duties collectively with the support of Akin Thomas, editorial director of HEB Nigeria. ġ972 – Chinua Achebe leaves his position following the publication of his short story collection Girls At War as the hundredth book in the series. ġ970 – Henry Chakava is appointed as editor of HEB East Africa and becomes managing director in 1975. ġ967 – James Currey is appointed to work with Keith Sambrook to develop the series. ġ965 – Aigboje Higo is appointed as manager of HEB Nigeria. The first result is A Book of African Verse edited by Clive Wake and John Reed, teachers at the University College of Rhodesia. He begins collaborating with African and non-African academics to produce publications that would more clearly meet this aim. ġ964 – Sambrook is concerned that the early selections for the series will not reach the educational market, particularly after the inclusion of Zambia Shall Be Free. ġ963 – Van Milne leaves Heinemann and is replaced by Keith Sambrook. Chinua Achebe is appointed Editorial Advisor with a salary of £150 a year. ġ962 – Alan Hill and Van Milne launch the African Writers Series with a paperback edition of Things Fall Apart, followed by Cyprian Ekwensi’s Burning Grass, and then Kenneth Kaunda’s autobiography Zambia Shall Be Free. Hill explains that the plan was ‘to start a paperback series, confined to black African authors the books were to be attractively designed with high quality production, and sold at a very cheap price-as low as 25p at the outset’. He becomes HEB's Overseas Director ġ961 – Van Milne originates the idea of the African Writers Series. Alan Hill recruits Evan McKay Milne, known as Van Milne, a West Africa specialist. They start to receive manuscripts from other African authors. ġ960 – Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) is set up as a separate company and begins to publicise Achebe in Africa. He finds that Achebe remains largely unknown in his home country of Nigeria due to the small print run and high price of his first novel. ġ959 – Alan Hill, head of Heinemann’s educational department, visits West Africa. 2,000 hardcover copies were printed and sold at a price of 15s. 1958 – William Heinemann publishes Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
0 kommentar(er)
