Ralph Ellison (1913-1994) · AuthorAuthor
Ralph Ellison
1913-1994 · American novelist and essayist, author of Invisible Man
About Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison (1913–1994) was an American novelist and essayist, born in Oklahoma City and named after Ralph Waldo Emerson. He studied music at Tuskegee Institute, moved to New York in 1936, where Richard Wright encouraged his writing, worked for the Federal Writers' Project and served in the merchant marine during the Second World War. Invisible Man (1952), his only novel published in his lifetime, won the National Book Award. His essays were collected in Shadow and Act (1964) and Going to the Territory (1986); his unfinished second novel appeared posthumously as Juneteenth (1999).
Notable works
- Invisible Man (1952)
- Shadow and Act (1964)
- Going to the Territory (1986)
- Flying Home and Other Stories (1996)
- Juneteenth (1999)
On this site
Invisible ManRalph Ellison
1952 · Postwar Contemporary · Novel
Invisible Man is narrated by a nameless Black American who addresses the reader from a hidden basement room in New York, lit by 1,369 light bulbs powered with electricity he takes without paying. He calls himself invisible not because of any physical condition but because the people he meets see only what they expect to see.