This Earth of Mankind is the first book in Pramoedya Ananta Toer's "Buru Quartet". Hasta Mitra first published it in 1980. The story happens at the end of the Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia. Pramoedya wrote the novel in prison on Buru island in eastern Indonesia. Pramoedya told the story aloud to other prisoners in 1973 because he was not allowed to write. The story spread through all the prisoners until 1975. Then Pramoedya was finally allowed to write the full story.