Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

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Ralph Ellison 
(1914 – 1994) 

  • Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer.
  •  He was born in Oklahoma.
  •  Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man 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).
  •  A posthumous novel Juneteeth was published after being assembled from voluminous notes he left after his death.
  •  He specifically cited reading T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” as a major awakening moment.
  •  His first published story was Hymie’s Bull inspired by his 1933, hoboing on a train with his uncle to get to Tuskegee.
  •  In 1969, he received the “Presidential Medal of Freedom”.
Important Works of Ralph Ellison 
  1. Invisible Man (1952) 
  • This novel is narrated in the first person by protagonist an unnamed Black Man who considered himself socially invisible.
  •  According to the ‘New York Times’, U.S. president Barrack Obama modeled his memoir “Dreams from my Father” on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.
 Flying Home and Other Stories
  •  Juneteeth (1999)
  • Three Days before the Shooting (2010)
Essays 
  •  Shadow and Act (1964).

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