Ralph Waldo Ellison
Born	March 1, 1913(1913-03-01)[1] Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Died	April 16, 1994 (aged 81) New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, Essayist, Short story writer,
Genres	Fiction, Short Stories, Criticism
Influences	Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Louis Armstrong, Richard Wright, Twain, Faulkner, Henry James, T.S. Eliot

Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1913^[1] – April 16, 1994) was a scholar and writer. He was born Ralph Waldo Ellison in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, named by his father after Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison was best known for his novel Invisible Man (ISBN 0-679-60139-2), which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote Shadow and Act (1964), a collection of political, social and critical essays, and Going to the Territory (1986). Research by Lawrence Jackson, one of Ellison's biographers, has established that he was born a year earlier than had been previously thought. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (728x850, 85 KB) Description Ralph Ellison, noted author and professor. ... is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... OKC redirects here. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... This article is about work. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... An essayist is an author who writes compositions which can be about any particular subject. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ... Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau[1]) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, and philosopher who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance... Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ... Louis[1] Armstrong[2] (4 August 1901[3] – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo[4] and Pops, was an American jazz musician. ... Richard Wright is the name of several people, including: Richard Wright, African-American author Richard B. Wright, Canadian author Richard Wright, keyboard player with Pink Floyd Richard Wright, England football goalkeeper Richard Wright, American politician This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might... Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. ... William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... For other uses of this name, see Henry James (disambiguation). ... Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a mastery of some academic discipline, perhaps receiving financial support through a scholarship. ... A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... OKC redirects here. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ... Invisible Man, a novel written by Ralph Ellison, chronicles the experiences and conflicts of identity in the unnamed narrator within the context of mid-twentieth-century America. ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ... See also: 1952 in literature, other events of 1953, 1954 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1963 in literature, other events of 1964, 1965 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The year 1986 in literature involved some significant events and new books. ...

Early life

Ellison was born in Oklahoma City, OK, probably in 1913. Ellison's father, a small-business owner and a construction foreman, died when Ralph was three. Many years later, Ellison would find out that his father hoped he would grow up to be a poet, and named him after the great American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison's mother raised him and his brother Herbert, while working as a domestic and nursemaid. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ...

Early in life he became enamored of music, studying trumpet and piano. Ellison lived at a time when several great jazz musicians were in Oklahoma City, so he became immersed in that genre of music as well as the classical composition which he studied in school. Jimmy Rushing would be a particularly strong influence; years later he would include the essay "Remembering Jimmy" in his book of criticism Shadow And Act. Music was a constant theme both in his personal life and in his writing. James Andrew (Jimmy) Rushing (August 26, 1901/02/03 - June 8, 1972) was an American blues singer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. ...

College

In 1933, Ellison entered the Tuskegee Institute on a scholarship to study music. Tuskegee's music department was perhaps the most renowned department at the school, headed by the conductor Charles L. Dawson (the Tuskegee choir was invited to play at many prestigious locations throughout the world, including Radio City). Ellison also had the fortune to come under the close tutelage of the piano instructor Hazel Harrison. While he studied music primarily in his classes, he spent increasing amounts of time in the library, reading up on modernist classics. He specifically cited The Waste Land as a major awakening moment for him. There is also the Tuskegee Airmen, a corps of African-American military pilots trained there during World War II Tuskegee University is an American institution of higher learning located in Tuskegee, Alabama. ... Hazel Harrison was born May 12, 1883 in La Porte, Indiana. ... The Waste Land (1922), sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland, is a highly influential 434-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ...

New York

After his third year, Ellison moved to New York City to earn money for his final year. He decided to study sculpture and he made acquaintance with the artist Romare Bearden. Perhaps Ellison's most important contact would be with the author Richard Wright, with whom he would have a long and complicated relationship. After Ellison wrote a book review for Wright, Wright encouraged Ellison to pursue a career in writing, specifically fiction. The first published story written by Ellison was a short story entitled "Hymie's Bull," a story inspired by Ellison's hoboing on a train with his uncle to get to Tuskegee. From 1937 to 1944 Ellison had over twenty book reviews as well as short stories and articles published in magazines such as New Challenge and New Masses. Romare Bearden, in his army uniform, a photograph taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1944 Romare Bearden, (September 2, 1911, in Charlotte, North Carolina—March 11, 1988 in New York, New York) was an African-American artist and writer. ... For other persons of the same name, see Richard Wright. ... History of the New Masses Magazine (The Masses and The Liberator Magazine) During the the First World War, most of the people who worked for the believed that the USA should remain neutral. ...

During WWII Ellison joined the Merchant Marine, and in 1946 he married his second wife, Fanny McConnell. She supported her husband financially while he wrote Invisible Man, and typed Ellison's longhand text. She also assisted her husband in editing the typescript as it progressed. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... For the H.G. Wells novel, see The Invisible Man. ...

Writings

Invisible Man explores the theme of man’s search for his identity and place in society, as seen from the perspective of an unnamed black man in the New York City of the 1940’s. In contrast to his contemporaries such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin, Ellison created characters who are dispassionate, educated, articulate and self-aware. Through the protagonist, Ellison explores the contrasts between the Northern and Southern varieties of racism and their alienating effect. The narrator is "invisible" in a figurative sense, in that "people refuse to see" him, and also experiences a kind of dissociation. The groundbreaking novel, with its treatment of previously taboo issues such as incest and white America's distorted perceptions of black sexuality, won the National Book Award in 1953. For the H.G. Wells novel, see The Invisible Man. ... For other persons of the same name, see Richard Wright. ... James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – November 30, 1987) was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, and essayist, best known for his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ... See also: 1952 in literature, other events of 1953, 1954 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

In 1955, Ellison went abroad to Europe to travel and lecture before settling for a time in Rome, Italy, where he wrote an essay that appeared in a Bantam anthology called A New Southern Harvest in 1957. In 1958, he returned to the United States to take a position teaching American & Russian literature at Bard College and to begin a second novel, Juneteenth. During the 1950s he corresponded with his lifelong friend, the writer Albert Murray. In these letters they commented on the development of their careers, the civil rights movement and other common interests including jazz. Much of this material was published in the collection Trading Twelves (2000). For other meanings of the word Bard, see Bard (disambiguation). ... Albert L. Murray (born May 12, 1916 in Nokomis, Alabama) is an African American literary and jazz critic, novelist and biographer. ...

In 1964, Ellison published Shadow And Act, a collection of essays, and began to teach at Rutgers and Yale, and continued to work on his novel. The following year, a survey of 200 prominent literary figures was released that proclaimed Invisible Man as the most important novel since World War II. Rutgers University Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is located in New Brunswick, Piscataway, Camden and Newark, New Jersey. ... YALE (Yet Another Learning Environment) is an environment for machine learning experiments and data mining. ...

In 1967, Ellison experienced a major house fire at his home in Plainfield, Massachusetts, in which he claimed 300 pages of his second novel manuscript were lost. This assertion is disproved in the 2007 biography of Ellison by Arnold Rampersad. A perfectionist regarding the art of the novel, Ellison had said in accepting his National Book Award for Invisible Man, that he felt he had made "an attempt at a major novel", and despite the award, he was unsatisfied with the book. Ellison ultimately wrote over 2000 pages of this second novel, most of them by 1959. He never finished. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Writing essays about both the black experience and his love for jazz music, Ellison continued to receive major awards for his work. In 1969, he received the Medal of Freedom; the following year, he was awarded the coveted Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by France and became a permanent member of the faculty at New York University as the Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities, acting from 1970-1980. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the United States. ... New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in New York City. ...

In 1975, Ellison was elected to the American Academy for the Arts and Letters and his hometown of Oklahoma City honored him with the dedication of the Ralph Waldo Ellison Library. Continuing to teach, Ellison published mostly essays, and in 1984, he received the New York City College's Langston Hughes Medallion. The following year saw the publication of Going to the Territory, a collection of seventeen essays that included insight into southern novelist William Faulkner and his friend Richard Wright, as well as the music of Duke Ellington and the contributions of African Americans to America’s national identity. William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... For other persons of the same name, see Richard Wright. ... This article is about the American Jazz composer and performer. ...

Ellison was also an accomplished sculptor, musician, photographer and college professor. He taught at Bard College, Rutgers, the University of Chicago, and New York University. Ellison was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. For other meanings of the word Bard, see Bard (disambiguation). ... Rutgers University Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is located in New Brunswick, Piscataway, Camden and Newark, New Jersey. ... For other uses, see University of Chicago (disambiguation). ... New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in New York City. ... The Fellowship of Southern Writers is a literary organization headquartered at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. ...

Ralph Ellison died of pancreatic cancer on April 16, 1994, and was buried in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. His wife, who survived him, lived until November 19, 2005. Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumor within the pancreatic gland. ... is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... This article is about the neighborhood in New York City. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

After his death, more manuscripts were discovered in his home, resulting in the publication of Flying Home: And Other Stories in 1996. Five years after his death, under the editorship of John F. Callahan, a professor at Lewis & Clark College and Ellison's literary executor, Ellison's second novel, Juneteenth (ISBN 0-394-46457-5), was published. It was a 368-page condensation of over 2000 pages written by Ellison over a period of forty years. All the manuscripts of this incomplete novel will be published on June 17, 2008 by Modern Library, under the tentative title Three Days Before the Shooting. John F. Callahan is literary executor for the late Ralph Ellison, and was the editor for his posthumously released novel, Juneteenth. ... Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. ... An executor is a person named by a maker of a will to carry out the directions of the will. ... Juneteenth is the title of African American writer Ralph Ellisons second novel (ISBN 0-394-46457-5), published posthumously as a 368-page condensation of over 2000 pages written by him over a period of forty years. ... Three Days Before the Shooting is the title of the edited manuscript of Ralph Ellisons never-finished second novel. ...

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Ellison's birthday has been listed as either 1913 or 1914 by various reputable sources.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Ralph Ellison

• Literary Encyclopedia Biography
• Literary Encyclopedia, Invisible Man
• Biography
• PBS
• The Paris Review Interview
• Notes on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
• Saul Bellow's 1952 Review of Invisible Man
• Shadowing Ralph Ellison by John Wright
• Photos of the first edition of Invisible Man