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This book is an exploration of the material conditions of the production of African literature. Drawing on the archives of Heinemann´s African Writers Series, it highlights the procedures, relationships, demands, ideologies, and counterpressures engendered by the publication of three major authors: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiongo. As a study of the history and techniques of African literary texts, this book advances a theory of reciprocity of effects - what it terms ´auto-heteronomy´ - to describe the dynamic of formalist activism by which texts anticipate and shape the forces of literary production in advance. It serves as a departure from the ´death of the author´ thesis by reconsidering the role of the author in African literature and culture industry, as well as the influence of African publics on writers´ aesthetic choices, and on the overall processes of production. This work is a major contribution to African literary history, literary criticism, and book history.

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Preface.- Introduction. 1. The Commonwealth Impresario. 2. The Literary Scramble for Africa: Selection and The practice of Hierarchies. 3. The Seeds of the Series: Chinua Achebe and the Educational Publisher. 4. Wole Soyinka: The Pan-African Literary Practice. 5. Ngugi: Language, Publics, and Production. 6. Postcolonialism: Dialectic of Autonomy and Determinism.- Conclusion.

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Olabode Ibironke is Assistant Professor of English at Rutgers University, USA.

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