Ellison, Ralph Waldo

Ellison, Ralph Waldo ( 1914 – 94 ),
born in Oklahoma City, and remembered for his novel Invisible Man ( 1952 ), which tells the story of a New York immigrant black who lives in a coal hole, in hiding from himself and ‘the Brotherhood’. This novel had to bear the burden of recognition as the first great black classic, and he found it difficult to follow, as a subsequent more militant generation accused him of appeasement as a ‘white nigger’, but it is still much read and admired.