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The forger's tale : the search for Odeziaku / Stephanie Newell.
Van Pelt Library PR6037.T915 Z79 2006
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Newell, Stephanie, 1968-
- Series:
- New African histories series
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Stuart-Young, John Moray, 1881-1939.
- Stuart-Young, John Moray.
- Authors, English--20th century--Biography.
- Authors, English.
- Forgers.
- Colonies.
- History.
- Gay men.
- Identity (Philosophical concept).
- Gay authors.
- Great Britain.
- Africa.
- Gay authors--Great Britain--Biography.
- Gay men--Great Britain--Identity.
- Gay men--Africa--Identity.
- Great Britain--Colonies--Africa--History--20th century.
- Forgers--Great Britain--Biography.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- xii, 233 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Athens : Ohio University Press, [2006]
- Summary:
- In The Forger's Tale: The Search for Odeziaku, Stephanie Newell charts the story of the English novelist and poet John Moray Stuart-Young (1881-1939) as he traveled from the slums of Manchester to West Africa. Leaving behind a criminal record for forgery and embezzlement, his notoriety as a "spirit rapper," and the homophobic prejudices of late-Victorian society, Stuart-Young constructed a new identity as a wealthy palm oil trader and a celebrated author, known to Nigerians as "Odeziaku"-meaning arranger, manager, or keeper of wealth.
- Newell's book opens with a remarkable scene: thousands of Nigerians on the streets of Onitsha in 1939 mourning the death of the British trader-cum-novelist who had lived in their midst for decades, who was well known for having a curious fondness for young men, and who claimed personal connections with Oscar Wilde. How does one make sense of this scene of thousands paying tribute to Stuart-Young at the dawn of African nationalism?
- In an original and finely crafted account, Newell looks for answers, not in the imperial archives, but in Onitsha, in the Igbo world Stuart-Young inhabited for so long. This is not, in other words, another book on "sexuality and the British empire." This is African history at its best and most innovative. In Newell's skillful hands, the walls dividing imperial history from local African histories simply crumble, and the end result is a lively, engaging story that speaks powerfully not only to African history and British history, but to gender studies, queer theory, and studies of sexuality.
- Contents:
- Forging ahead: the secret gentleman of Ardwick Green
- The palm oil trader's view
- Fragments of Oscar Wilde in colonial Nigeria
- "Uranian" love in West Africa
- The politics of naming : Igbo perspectives on Stuart-Young
- The strange toleration of Stuart-Young in the African-owned press of Nigeria
- A class apart : "Johnny Jones" of Back Kay Street
- The production of a poet : Stuart-Young's verse and its readers.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-226) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0821417096
- 082141710X
- 9780821417096
- 9780821417102
- OCLC:
- 70219945
- Publisher Number:
- 9780821417096
- 9780821417102
- Online:
- Contributor biographical information
- Publisher description
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