67 James Currey Was the Editor in Charge of the African Writers Series

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Africa Writes Back: The African Writers The focus is on the first 25 years of the se- Series & the Launch of African Literature ries, from 1962 to 1988. James Currey was James Currey able to draw on the African Writers Series Oxford: James Currey Publishers;and files, which Heinemann has deposited Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2008. with the University of Reading library xxxi + 318 pp in their renowned publishing archives, £19.95/$26.95 pap. and which is linked with its Centre for £55.00/$55.00 cased the History of Authorship, Writing and ISBN-13 9781847015020 pap. Publishing: http://www.reading.ac.uk/ ISBN-13 9781847015037 cased english/research/deal-chawp.asp. The (James Currey Publishers) book is co-published with no less than ISBN-13 9780821418437 pap. five African publishing houses in East, ISBN-13 9780821418420 cased West, and Southern Africa, which must (Ohio University Press) be something of a record.

James Currey was the editor in charge Rich in anecdotal material on many of of the African Writers Series (AWS) at Africa’s best known writers, the book of- Heinemann Educational Books from fers a narrative of how the now famous 1967 to 1984. Together with his colleagues series came together. It ‘provides evi- Henry Chakava in Kenya, Aig Higo in dence of the ways in which estimation by Nigeria, and Keith Sambrook in London a publisher of the work of writers grows they published the first 270 titles in the and, sadly on occasion, diminishes’, series. This fascinating and highly enter- and gives examples of ‘how the views taining book tells the story of how they of publishers and their advisers emerge did it, and how publishing relationships as they consider a new manuscript, and were developed and nurtured with a very then coalesce and change as they assess large number of African writers, includ- further work by the same author’. The ing some of the continent’s now foremost book is interspersed with archival pho- writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa tographs and portraits of African writers Thiong’o, Nuruddin Farah, Alex la Guma, by George Hallett, whose photographs Bessie Head, Dennis Brutus, Dambudzo were used on many of the books’ covers. Marechera, and many more.

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Much of the content consists of tations of sales and royalty earn- Another particularly fascinating extracts from correspondence ings; and they tell of encounters chapter is ‘Publishing Bessie Head’, between James Currey and the with some larger than life charac- particularly as it relates to the is- numerous writers who were pub- ters such as Taban lo Liyong, who sue of trust between a publisher lished in the series, as well as cor- had such high expectations of the and their authors, and authors respondence with literary agents, profits that could be earned from and their agents. Bessie Head had copy editors, and correspond- his writings that he planned to a history of quarrels with a whole ence with Currey’s colleagues at build a palace from the proceeds, sequence of publishers and agents, the (then) Heinemann offices in called ‘Royalty House’! Or they re- but the extracts from Currey’s Kenya and Nigeria, together with count the sometimes strained rela- correspondence shows with how extracts from readers’ reports. The tionship with a number of authors, much sensitivity and tact dealings book opens with a chapter entitled such as Dambudzo Marechera, the with her were handled, demon- ‘Publishing and selling the African Zimbabwean writer and enfant strating an enormous amount of Writers Series’ and a timeline of terrible of African literature who goodwill on the part of the pub- the main dates of the series, from died in 1987 and who has now at- lisher, but also applying firmness its founding by the late Alan Hill tained something close to cult when firmness was called for. and Van Milne in 1962 through status, with several websites and to 2003, when Heinemann man- blogs devoted to him. The chapter The book includes a complete list agement announced that no new ‘Publishing Dambudzo Marechera’ of all titles published in the AWS titles would be added and the includes the funny and rather gro- from 1962 to 2003 by year of pub- Heinemann International Division tesque correspondence between lication, and a concluding chapter, was disbanded, although some of Marechera and Currey (acting as ‘Is there still a role for the African the most popular titles are still his reluctant guardian at the time, Writers Series’, looks at develop- kept in print. The complete series while Marechera stayed in the UK ments to the series since 1988. is now available in digital format in the late Seventies), written from Earlier, in 1983, Tilling, the owners published by Chadwyck-Healey, such diverse settings as a Cardiff of the Heinemann Group had been the specialist humanities imprint prison cell or from a tent set up in taken over by British Tyre and of Pro-Quest CSA. The digitiza- Port Meadow in Oxford along the Rubber (BTR), which was followed tion of the AWS texts as part of banks of the Thames. The chapter by changes in corporate manage- an extensive searchable database describes how Currey was trying to ment, frequent shifts in policy, and permits new kinds of research and cope with Marechera’s tantrums, later yet more changes in owner- enquiry to be pursued, allowing re- his nomadic lifestyle, his knack for ship. Coupled with the collapse of searchers to run searches across a creating havoc at various literary the markets in Africa in the 1980s, whole corpus of texts1 events, and his eccentric behav- the outlook for the future growth (and see http://www.proquest. iour: for example by turning up at of the series became increasingly com/products_pq/descriptions/af- the Heinemann offices in Mayfair uncertain. In 2003 the owners of rican_writers_ser.shtml). unannounced dressed up in a va- the Heinemann imprint issued a riety of disguises, trying to borrow statement that no new work was Subsequent chapters vividly cap- small sums of money or attempt- to be added to the AWS, but keep- ture the drama and energy of the ing to squeeze yet more royalty ing 64 of the most established whole enterprise: the publishing advances out of his publisher, as (and presumably most lucra- risks involved, dealing with writ- well as giving Currey a hard time tive) titles in print and reprint- ers’ egos and temperaments, their with his heavy drinking—‘Damn ing them periodically (see http:// financial needs, their perceptions Boozo’, as Currey’s children loved www.heinemann.co.uk/Series/ about publication rights issues, to call him. Secondary/AfricanWritersSeries/ their sometimes unrealistic expec- AfricanWritersSeries).

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