The first edition, published by Heinemann in London in 1964 under the name James Ngugi. The jacket calls it the first novel by a young Kenyan — it was the first novel in English published by an East African writer.
The author note dates the book precisely. Ngugi had just finished his last term at Makerere, where he read English and edited Penpoint; his play The Black Hermit had been staged at the Uganda National Theatre for the independence celebrations; and another novel, already awarded the top prize in the East African Literature Bureau’s competition, was announced for 1965. That was The River Between — written first, published second.
The title comes from Walt Whitman’s On the Beach at Night, quoted as the epigraph. Dedicated to Jasbir Kalsi. Printed by Bookprint Limited of Kingswood, Surrey. The back matter advertises Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God with review extracts, including one from The Listener whose racial phrasing is very much of its moment.
Author name. Published as James Ngugi. The author later wrote as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; this catalogue follows the name printed on the title page, and sets the title with the comma the title page uses.
