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Chinua Achebe Facts

Chinua Achebe Facts
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian writer best known for his novel Things Fall Apart, the most read book in African literature. He was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe on November 16th, 1930 in Igbo village in Ogidi, to Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet Anaenechi Iloegbunam. Chinua attended St. Philips' Central School in 1936 and was quickly moved to a higher grade level when his intelligence became obvious. When he was 12 Chinua moved four kilometers from home and attended Central School where his brother taught. He went on to the prestigious Government College in Umuahia, a school established for Nigeria's most promising. He went on to study medicine at University College in Ibadan. While there he changed his major to English when he decided to become a writer.
Interesting Chinua Achebe Facts:
Chinua Achebe wrote his first short story while at University College titled In a Village Church.
After graduation from the University in 1954, Chinua Achebe became a teacher at the Merchants of Light School in Oba.
Chinua Achebe quit teaching to become the Director of External Broadcasting in Lagos at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.
In 1958 Chinua Achebe sent his manuscript for Things Fall Apart to an agent recommended to him by a friend named Gilbert Phelps.
Things Fall Apart was rejected by several publishers, until it reached Heinemann where an educational advisor said, "This is the best novel I have read since the war." 2000 copies were printed in 1959 and the novel received positive reviews and endorsements.
Things Fall Apart went on to be translated into more than 50 languages and sold more than eight million copies around the world.
Chinua Achebe's next two novels were No Longer at Ease (1960), and Arrow of God (1964).
Chinua Achebe married Christiana Chinwe Okoli on September 10th, 1961. They had several children together including Chinelo, Ikechukwu, Chidi, Nwando, and eventually had several grandchildren as well.
Chinua Achebe's novel A Man of People was published in 1966. It brought military trouble to him because his book foreshadowed the coup. He sent his wife and children to Port Harcourt, and then followed them to safety.
Chinua Achebe's first children's book Chike and the River was published in 1966. He also wrote the children's books How the Leopard Got His Claws (1972), The Flute (1975), and The Drum (1978).
Anthills of the Savannah was Chinua Achebe's 5th novel, and it was published in 1987.
Chinua Achebe also wrote many short stories, essays, criticisms, poetry, political commentary, and works of non-fiction.
Chinua Achebe continued to teach throughout his life. He was a professor at the University of Nigeria, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and at Bard College in New York.
Chinua Achebe received more than 30 honorary degrees at universities around the world.
Chinua Achebe won many awards for his writing including the Nigerian National Order of Merit, The Man Booker International Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and the United Nations Population Fund appointed him a Goodwill Ambassador in 1999.
Chinua Achebe died on March 21st, 1013 at the age of 82, in Boston, Massachusetts.


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