Achebe has been called "the father of modern African writing" and many books and essays have been written about his work over the past fifty years. In 1992 he became the first living author to be represented in the Everyman's Library collection published by Alfred A. Knopf. His 60th birthday was celebrated at the University of Nigeria by "an international Who's Who in African Literature". One observer noted: "Nothing like it had ever happened before in African literature anywhere on the continent.
He has twice refused the Nigerian honour Commander of the Federal Republic - in 2004 and 2011 - stating :
"I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency"
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