Ralph Ellison

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Ralph Ellison Biography

Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man (1952) embodies the dilemma of being black in America with the line, “I am invisible, understand, because people refuse to see me.” Along with racial prejudice, Ellison experienced emotional and financial hardships in his young life, including the death of his father. Despite these difficulties, Ellison had an unstoppable passion for the arts. He began his career as a trumpet player at the Tuskegee Institute, but finding it too conservative for his unconventional jazz leanings, Ellison moved to New York to pursue a career as a visual artist. A happenstance meeting with the poet Langston Hughes and the novelist Richard Wright changed his artistic direction once again. In 1936, he joined the Federal Writers’ Project and found his true calling. Ellison died in 1994, leaving a legacy of innovative writing that still stirs passions.

Facts and Trivia

  • Though critically acclaimed, Invisible Man was controversial in the black community because Ellison wanted integration with white society rather than a completely separate black identity.
  • Ellison’s biological father named him after the nineteenth-century philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, hoping the boy would grow up to be a poet.
  • He served in World War II as a cook and wrote the first lines of Invisible Man after the end of the war.
  • Ellison claimed his main influences were Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and American author Richard Wright.
  • He won the National Medal of Arts in 1985 for his body of work.

Biography

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Ralph Ellison emerged as a literary giant with his groundbreaking novel Invisible Man in 1952. His contributions extended beyond fiction, with two notable essay collections, Shadow and Act and Going to the Territory, enriching his legacy. Posthumously, his ambitious, uncompleted novel Juneteenth was released, adding to his enduring influence on American letters.

Early Life and Inspirations

Ellison was born in 1914 in Oklahoma City, where his father named him after the transcendentalist essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Following his father's death when Ellison was just four, his mother raised him and his brother, instilling in them a love for intellectual and cultural pursuits. Oklahoma's cultural tapestry deeply influenced Ellison; the racial tensions and rich musical heritage he encountered during the 1920s provided fertile ground for his later storytelling. The sounds of jazz, gospel, classical, and folk music were a constant presence, shaping Ellison's artistic sensibilities.

Academic Pursuits and Influential Connections

At nineteen, Ellison left Oklahoma, enrolling at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he initially pursued music. However, a move to New York in 1936 shifted his focus toward literature after meeting influential figures like Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, and Richard Wright. Wright's impact was particularly profound, guiding Ellison's early forays into writing. During this era, Ellison, like his mentors Hughes and Wright, found the Communist Party's critiques of social and economic injustice compelling, though he eventually distanced himself from its organizational structure.

Early Career and Literary Breakthrough

Before securing a Federal Writers' Project grant in 1936, Ellison took on a variety of jobs in New York, including roles as a freelance photographer and a stereo repairman. His first story was published in 1939, setting the stage for more writing successes in the early 1940s. Ellison made significant strides as the managing editor of Negro Quarterly in 1942, and he published the stories "Flying Home" and "The Bingo Game" in 1944.

Marriage, War, and Novel Inspiration

Ellison married Fanny McConnell in 1944, shortly before serving as a cook with the merchant marines during World War II. Upon returning to civilian life, he spent time in Vermont, where the seeds for his seminal novel Invisible Man began to take root. Released in 1952, the novel catapulted Ellison to literary fame, garnering widespread acclaim as a masterpiece. The work's immediate success was underscored by its receipt of the National Book Award in 1953, and Ellison continued to receive numerous accolades, including honorary degrees from esteemed institutions like Harvard and Brown.

Tragedy and Resilience

Tragedy struck in 1967 when a fire engulfed Ellison's summer home, destroying much of his work on a major novel. Undeterred, he painstakingly reconstructed the manuscript, which eventually exceeded a thousand pages. Ellison's life journey ended in 1994 when he succumbed to cancer, and he was laid to rest in Washington Heights, near his New York residence.

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