Chinua Achebe: A Biography - Hardcover

by Ezenwa-Ohaeto (Author)

". . . some 10 years of painstaking enquiry are presented with sustained energy . . . Ezenwa-Ohaeto has completed a remarkable feat . . ." --West Africa

". . . a gold mine of a source for future researchers." --The Literary Griot

" . . . in this meticulously researched work, [Ezenwa-Ohaeto] provides a wealth of information that should prove invaluable to all future studies of Achebe." --Library Journal

"Great back-up for classes reading Achebe's Things Fall Apart." --Booklist

"This pioneering biography draws upon a wealth of printed and oral sources to produce a vivid record of the life and times of Africa's most influential novelist. Ezenwa-Ohaeto is Achebe's Boswell; nothing of importance, large or small, seems to escape him." --Bernth Lindfors, University of Texas

This is the first biography of the internationally acclaimed author of Things Fall Apart, the most widely read African novel, first published in 1958 and now a classic, with more than 12 million copies in print. Things Fall Apart is a defining moment in African and world literature.

Ezenwa-Ohaeto's biography is the first comprehensive account of Achebe's life to date. Based on extensive research and numerous interviews, this is also the first work to trace the story of Achebe's life while putting his achievement into a social and historical context.

Back Jacket

This is the first biography of Chinua Achebe. His novels span the African experience of colonialism, independence and of civilian and military corruption. His short stories in particular reflect his involvement in the Biafran civil war in Nigeria. His poetry, both in English and Igbo, reveals a sensitive talent. His children's stories introduced the young and their parents to the excitement of books. Chinua Achebe had an active and generous role in encouraging other African writers by starting the literary journal Okike, by founding a publishing house in war-torn Nigeria and by introducing, in his role as the Founding Editor of the African Writers Series, new writers to a worldwide audience. Through his teaching in universities in Africa and America he showed the importance of Africa's own literature in the re-establishment of its cultural independence.

Author Biography

Ezenwa-Ohaeto, poet and writer, was one of Chinua Achebe's students at the University of Nigeria, before he took a doctorate at the University of Benin. He has taught at Ahmadu Bello University, Anambra State College, and Alvan Ikoku Institute as well as the Universities of Mainz and Bayreuth.