"James Currey was the editor in charge of the African Writers Series (AWS) at Heinemann Educational Books from 1967 to 1984. Together with his colleagues Henry Chakava in Kenya, Aig Higo in Nigeria, and Keith Sambrook in London they published the first 270 titles in the series. This fascinating and ... highly entertaining book tells the story how they did it, and how publishing relationships were developed and nurtured with a very large number of African writers, including some of the continent’s now foremost writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Nuruddin Farah, Alex la Guma, Bessie Head, Dennis Brutus, Dambudzo Marechera, and many more. The focus is on the first twenty-five years of the series from 1962 to 1988. Rich in anecdotal material on many of Africa’s best known writers, the book offers a narrative how the now famous series came together. It “provides evidence of the ways in which estimation by a publisher of the work of writers grows and, sadly on occasion, diminishes”, and gives examples of “how the views of publishers and their advisers emerge as they consider a new manuscript, and then coalesce and change as they assess further work by the same author.” The book is interspersed with archival photographs and portraits of African writers by George Hallett, whose photographs were used on many of the books’ covers. Much of the contents consist of extracts from correspondence between James Currey and the numerous writers that were published in the series, as well as correspondence with literary agents, copy editors, correspondence with Currey’s colleagues at (then) Heinemann offices in Kenya and Nigeria, together with extracts from readers’ reports. The various chapters vividly capture the drama and energy of the whole enterprise: the publishing risks involved, dealing with writers egos and temperaments, their financial needs, their perceptions about publication rights issues, and their sometimes unrealistic expectations of sales and royalty earnings." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1331) more

"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 which has sold close on 10 million copies. Much less well remembered is his creative role as the fir ... st 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." (Abstract) more