A Selection of African Prose Vol 1: Traditional Oral Texts compiled by W.H. Whiteley [U.K. FIRST EDITION] 1964 • Oxford

A Selection of African Prose Volume 1: Traditional Oral Texts compiled by W.H. Whiteley (The Oxford Library of African Literature)

U.K. FIRST EDITION • FIRST PRINTING [1964] OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Hardcover with dust jacket in stunning condition.

A mint cloth-bound hardcover in an even more stunning dust jacket. 

Pristine matte jacket now housed in a new archival quality jacket protector. 

Reads like new!

The task of recording oral compositions before they are lost to memory, and of providing a basis for future literary studies of Africa, is a specially urgent one for scholars of the present generation, for African literature which has appeared in print is only a tiny fragment of the whole.

This library offers a selection of African poetry and prose chosen irrespective of time and place of composition. Each volume from a particular people introduces the society in which the works have been created, and describes their literary and linguistic characteristics. Annotated translations, often with the complete text facing in the original language, enable readers to compare varied expressions of African thought and imagination.

Compositions in local languages will thus find their place in the literary heritage of the whole continent, and the styles of African authors, many of them unfamiliar, may make their impact on the world of literature as those of India and China have done for many years.