Today in literary history: June 17

Here's what happened on June 17 in literary history.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was published June 17, 1958. 

The novel follows Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo community at a time when white missionaries and colonial government were intruding more and more on traditional ways of life — for the worse.

In part, Achebe sought to, in his words, fill the gap on bookshelves. As a well-educated and well-read person, he had noticed a lack of representation for his culture in English literature.

And what representation did exist was offensive, like in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. (That said, Achebe told an interviewer that he was in no way suggesting that people not read Conrad, noting that he himself taught a course on Heart of Darkness.)

Things Fall Apart has been credited with launching the Nigerian literary renaissance of the 1960s; originally written in English, it's now available in fifty-seven languages and is the most translated African novel.

Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, Literary Hub, and Mental Floss