Amos Tutuola (1920–1997)
Author of The Palm-Wine Drinkard and his Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town
About the Author
Amos Tutuola was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria. He received his elementary education at a Salvation Army school and has lived mostly at Ibadan, where he was for a long time a messenger. His highly controversial reputation as a writer is based on his unique style, a type of pidgin English. Tutuola's show more most popular work so far is his romance, The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), an extremely imaginative tall tale drawn from Yoruba legends and myths about a journey into the land of the dead. Despite the controversy surrounding Tutuola's "wrong" use of English, his historical significance as a writer cannot be disputed. Among the first black African writers to be published and win some degree of international recognition, he was also the first writer to see the possibilities of translating African mythology into English in an imaginative way. For all the controversy, Tutuola is highly popular and his books have been translated into many languages. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Owen Barfield World Wide Website
Works by Amos Tutuola
The Complete Gentleman 3 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1920-06-20
- Date of death
- 1997-06-08
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Nigeria
- Birthplace
- Abeokuta, Nigeria
- Place of death
- Ibadan, Nigeria
- Places of residence
- Abeokuta, Nigeria (birth)
- Organizations
- Nigerian Royal Air Force
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 14
- Also by
- 11
- Members
- 1,559
- Popularity
- #16,537
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 38
- ISBNs
- 72
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 13