The intention of the African Literature Today series [ALT] was, and still is, to encourage African writing in any language, whether of fiction, poetry or plays, and also to encourage its criticism. The critic's role, according toEldred Durosimi Jones in his 1968 Introduction to ALT 1, is to make the work accessible to a wider readership and to help establish literary standards for African literature: "The more permissive the publisher's policy is, the more necessary becomes the function of the critic." This book combines the first 4 volumes in the series, which had been published as single volumes between 1968 and 1970, then combined into one volume in 1972. It includes Bernth Lindfors' essay "The palm wine with which Achebe's words are eaten", plus early reviews of Elechi Amadi's The Concubine, Aim Csaire's Une Saison au Congo, Flora Nwapa's Efuru and Ngugi's A Grainof Wheat.