Ralph Ellison: A Biography
- ISBN-10
- 0375408274
- ISBN-13
- 9780375408274
- Series
- Ralph Ellison
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General
- Pages
- 657
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2007
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Authors
- Arnold Rampersad, Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature Arnold Rampersad
Description
The definitive biography of one of the most important American writers and cultural intellectuals of the twentieth century—Ralph Ellison, author of the masterpieceInvisible Man.
In 1953, Ellison’s explosive story of an innocent young black man’s often surreal search for truth and his identity won him the National Book Award for fiction and catapulted him to national prominence. Ellison went on to earn many other honors, including two presidential medals and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, but his failure to publish a second novel, despite years of striving, haunted him for the rest of his life. Now, as the first scholar given complete access to Ellison’s papers, Arnold Rampersad has written not only a reliable account of the main events of Ellison’s life but also a complex, authoritative portrait of an unusual artist and human being.
Born poor and soon fatherless in 1913, Ralph struggled both to belong to and to escape from the world of his childhood. We learn here about his sometimes happy, sometimes harrowing years growing up in Oklahoma City and attending Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Arriving in New York in 1936, he became a political radical before finally embracing the cosmopolitan intellectualism that would characterize his dazzling cultural essays, his eloquent interviews, and his historic novel. The second half of his long life brought both widespread critical acclaim and bitter disputes with many opponents, including black cultural nationalists outraged by what they saw as his elitism and misguided pride in his American citizenship.
This biography describes a man of magnetic personality who counted Saul Bellow, Langston Hughes, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wright, Richard Wilbur, Albert Murray, and John Cheever among his closest friends; a man both admired and reviled, whose life and art were shaped mainly by his unyielding desire to produce magnificent art and by his resilient faith in the moral and cultural strength of America.
A magisterial biography of Ralph Waldo Ellison—a revelation of the man, the writer, and his times.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of a Citizen of New-york, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853,...
By Solomon NorthupTwelve Years a Slave: Narrative of a Citizen of New-york, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853,...
-
Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton: For Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail
By Daniel DraytonPersonal Memoir of Daniel Drayton: For Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail
-
Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy
By Richmond Pearson HobsonA true adventure story of a man who built a four-million acre cattle empire in the remote ranges of the British Columbia Interior.
-
African Americans at War: An Encyclopedia
By Jonathan SutherlandWilliams, La Guardia, and Rosenberg were noted liberals. Randolph opened by unequivocally demanding that the president issue an ex- ecutive order banning segregation and racial discrimination in the defense industry.
-
历代寓湘人物传略
By 王晓天, 王国宇王陛下:先时,秦为亡道,天下诛之。大王先得秦王,定关中,于天下功最多。存亡定危,救败继绝,以安万民,功盛德厚。又加惠于诸侯王有功者,使得立社稷。地分已定,而位号比拟,亡上下之分,大王功德之著,于后世不宣。昧死再拜上皇帝尊号。......汉王曰:诸侯王幸以为 ...
-
湖南女杰传略
By 王国宇王王(?—1829),字湘梅,湘潭人,清女诗人。王氏家族在湘潭早有名气,只是到王父亲王之骏这一代已渐趋衰落,为了摆脱窘境,王之骏便自湘潭移风乡徙居湖南省城长沙,改以行医为业,因其医术高超、医德高尚而名声大振,许多湘潭后辈名流,如尚书贺长龄、史学家黄本骥等 ...
-
Bill Clay: A Political Voice at the Grass Roots
By William L. Clay... 235–236 ; loses re - election attempt , 248 Cook , Blondell , 88 Cook , Virginia , 299 CORE , 58–61 , 91 , 213 ; Jefferson Bank protests , 108–129 Crawford , Curtis , 166 Crumpton , Harold , 311 Cummings , James , 225-226 Cunningham ...
-
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
By Qanta AhmedA strikingly honest look into Islamic culture?--in particular women and Islam?--and what it takes for one woman to recreate herself in the land of invisible women.Unexpectedly denied a visa to...
-
Ella Fitzgerald: The Complete Biography
By Stuart NicholsonStuart Nicholson's biography of Ella Fitzgerald is considered a classic in jazz literature. Drawing on original documents, interviews, and new information, Nicholson draws a complete picture of Fitzgerald's professional and...
-
Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction
By Eric FonerThe Reconstruction period was one of great changes in American political and social life. Within a few years of the end of the Civil War and the demise of slavery,...