From its launch in 1962, the African Writers Series (AWS) enabled the dissemination of African literature worldwide and contributed to the creation of a critical sensitivity among readers and critics alike to its distinct qualities and values. It is difficult to imagine the existence of a solid ‘tradition’ of African literature in English without the African Writers Series. What is more, Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) made it possible for African authors writing in Arabic or French to be part of a larger literary phenomenon. The works varied from creative to biographical writings and echoed the rich multilingual and multicultural African voices then in the making. This article seeks to shed light on various aspects of publishing the AWS. It offers a survey of the rise and development of the series and the crisis that eventually befell it.