Editing Things Fall Apart (section)

==Background and publication history==
[[File:Chinua Achebe, 1966.jpg|thumb|alt= See caption|Achebe in [[Lagos]], 1966; eight years after the publication of ''Things Fall Apart'']]
''Things Fall Apart'' was [[Chinua Achebe]]'s first novel. After graduating from the [[University of Ibadan]] in 1953, he became a teacher in Oba, [[Anambra State]], before working in the [[Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation]] (NBC) the following year. During his stay at NBC, he started writing the manuscript. He wrote in English since he considers the existing standard for written [[Igbo language]] as stilted; created by the combination of various dialects, which he revealed in a 1994 interview.<ref>{{cite web | last=Brooks | first=Jerome | title=Chinua Achebe, The Art of Fiction No. 139 | website=The Paris Review | date=24 June 2024 | url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1720/the-art-of-fiction-no-139-chinua-achebe | access-date=24 February 2025}}</ref> In 1957 he removed the second and third parts of the manuscript, leaving only the story of Okonkwo, ultimately the main character of the story. He also restructured it and added new paragraphs and chapters.

After Achebe saw an advertisement in ''[[The Spectator]]'', he sent copies of his handwritten manuscript to a typing agency in London by ordinary mail. After he sent the requested fee of £22 by the agency through the British postal order, he heard nothing from the agency for many months. Towards the end of the year, his colleague, Angela Beattie, who was about to relinquish her post as Head of Talks at NBC, was going to London for her annual leave, Achebe asked her to check the status of his manuscript when she reach London. Following Beattie's intervention, the agency retrieved the manuscripts already covered with dust from a corner of the office, and sent only one typed copy to Achebe in Lagos.{{sfn|Ezenwa-Ohaeto|1997|p=63}}

Achebe was promoted as the Head of Talks at NBC. He sent his typescript to the literary agent of Gilbert Phelps in 1958.{{sfn|Ezenwa-Ohaeto|1997|p=64}} Several publishing houses rejected the typescript, giving the reason that fiction by African writers possessed no financial potential. The typescript was eventually taken to the office of [[William Heinemann]], where it was presented to James Michie and through him, came to the attention of Alan Hill, a publishing advisor.{{sfn|Ezenwa-Ohaeto|1997|p=65}} ''Things Fall Apart'' was published in hardback on 17 June 1958 with around 2000 print copies. Although the publishers didn't re-edit or copyedit the manuscript, it achieved instant acclaim in the British national press. ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' said that the novel "genuinely succeeds in presenting tribal life from inside while patterns of feeling and attitudes of mind appear clothed in a distinctive African imagery, written neither up nor down."{{sfn|Ezenwa-Ohaeto|1997|p=65}}