This Norton Critical Edition includes: The only student edition of Soyinka's play. An expansive introduction, headnotes, and explanatory footnotes by Simon Gikandi. Nine interior images. Background materials related to traditional Nigerian myth and culture, including two selections new to the Second Edition. A new section, "The Play on Stage," that considers Soyinka as director as well as the interpretative challenges of producing and performing Death and the King's Horseman. Seven critical essays--five of them new to the Second Edition--by Henry Louis Gates Jr., David Richards, Wole Ogundele, Eileen Julien, Cheryl Sterling, Eugene McNulty, and Ato Quayson. A chronology of Soyinka's life and work and a selected bibliography.