This unique investigation provides the first major account of the explosion of literary talent that began in Nigeria in 1948 and ended as the civil war was intensifying in 1966. The book is structured around interviews with the men and women who led this generation of profound talent, all of whom attended University College, Ibadan, or its successor, the University of Ibadan. Speculating about creativity and "how literature came into being" in Nigeria during the 1940s and 50s, Wren searches for clues that might explain how, from a single institution of learning, so many distinguished playwrights, poets, and novelists could emerge so suddenly.

The late Robert M. Wren was professor of English at the University of Houston.