Ralph Ellison

Author of the celebrated novel, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison’s idea of social invisibility – a condition in which an individual is judged and used on the basis of superficial characteristics by a society that leaves his actual qualities unexamined and unseen – influenced an array of notable authors, including Joseph Heller, John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut and Saul Bellow.

Ellison was born in Oklahoma City in 1914. His father worked in construction and as a tradesman, but died when the boy was three. His mother worked as a domestic to support the family, and often brought home magazines and phonograph records from the homes in which she worked. This exposure to music and literature had a great effect on Ralph. He took up the trumpet and played in the Douglass High School band. Later, he entered the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to study music. A mix-up concerning his tuition for the following year landed him in New York for the summer, and the rest, as they say, is history. There, Ellison encountered Alain Locke and Langston Hughes, two of America’s leading African American figures. They, in turn, introduced him to the African American author Richard Wright, whose encouragement and guidance helped set the stage for Ellison’s landmark novel.

The novel tells the story of a young, naïve Southern black man, eager to take his proper place in society, but stymied by others who continually interpret his role and place. The story appealed to not only people of color, but across racial lines: to young white men, poor working women, disenfranchised people in America and the world over.

Fans of his work waited eagerly for another novel, but a fire destroyed more than 300 pages of his manuscript in 1967. He did publish two collections of essays, titled Shadow and Act and Going to the Territory, as well as excerpts of his novel in progress. Unfortunately, Ellison died before the novel was completed.

Invisible to most Oklahomans for many years, in 2002 Ralph Ellison and his work were highlighted by Oklahoma County’s Metropolitan Library System in a year-long celebration called “The Year of Ralph Ellison: 50 Years of the Invisible Man.” One of the local libraries, which stands in Ellison’s old neighborhood, is named after the famed author. It was an honor that he said he most valued over any titles and accolades he had received.

“That library,” said close friend and writer John F. Callahan, “meant a great deal to him. He remembered growing up when blacks didn’t have a library, when a few blacks had to get together and put a library together with a few books in a basement of a local church. He remembered when they built their own library and when libraries were segregated. And for there to be an integrated library named after him in Oklahoma City meant a great deal to him.”

FURTHER READING:

Bishop, Jack. Ralph Ellison. Chelsea House Pub. Philadelphia. 2001.

Conversations with Ralph Ellison. University Press of Mississippi. Jackson, Miss. 1995.

Jackson, Lawrence Patrick.  Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius. J. Wiley. New York. 2002.

A Ralph Ellison Festival. Carleton College. Northfield, Minn. 1980.