Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian author, whose masterpiece and best-loved book, Things Fall Apart (1958), was not only his debut novel, but formed the starting place for his African Trilogy, which also included No Longer at Ease (1960), and Arrow of God (1964). Did you know that Things Fall Apart subsequently became the title for one of the greatest records by the Philadelphia hip-hop ensemble, The Roots? Achebe emigrated to the United States in the turbulent 1990s and became a professor at Bard College.