John Pepper Clark - Biography and Works

John Pepper Clark was born on 6, April 1935, in Kiagbodo, Nigeria. He is the son of an Ijaw tribal leader Clark Fuludu Bekederemo. Clark got his education from Government College in Ughelli then he got his Bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Ibadan.

Clark started editing magazines, including the Beacon and The Horn where he began to publish his poetry when he was at the University of Ibadan. Clark wrote his first dramatic work Song of a Goat in 1960 and it was staged in Ibadan in 1961 in Ibadan.

After he completed his graduation from the University of Ibadan, he started working as a journalist, editor and writer for Express newspapers. Later he started serving as the Department Head of English at the University of Lagos. Clark frequently dealt with the themes like violence and protest, institutional corruption, the beauty of nature and landscape, European colonialism and the inhumanity of the human race in his various works. His important works include The Example of Shakespeare (1970), A Reed in the Tide (1965), State of the Union (1981), Mandela and other Poems (1988), The Raft (1964), Ozidi (1966), The Boat (1981) and many more.