Ralph Ellison - by Arnold Rampersad (Paperback)

About the Book

On the strength of just one novel, as well as a series of lasting essays in cultural criticism, Ellison stands as one of the major literary figures of the last century. Rampersad tells the story of Ellison's long apprenticeship as a musician and writer and his long life, full of honors and frustrations.

Book Synopsis

Ralph Ellison is justly celebrated for his epochal novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953 and has become a classic of American literature. But Ellison's strange inability to finish a second novel, despite his dogged efforts and soaring prestige, made him a supremely enigmatic figure. Arnold Rampersad skillfully tells the story of a writer whose thunderous novel and astute, courageous essays on race, literature, and culture assure him of a permanent place in our literary heritage. Starting with Ellison's hardscrabble childhood in Oklahoma and his ordeal as a student in Alabama, Rampersad documents his improbable, painstaking rise in New York to a commanding place on the literary scene. With scorching honesty but also fair and compassionate, Rampersad lays bare his subject's troubled psychology and its impact on his art and on the people about him.This book is both the definitive biography of Ellison and a stellar model of literary biography.

Review Quotes

"Startling, illuminating. . . . [Rampersad] treats Ellison as a man, not as a deity."
--The New Yorker

"Astute . . . revelatory. . . . Consistently intriguing."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Illuminating and richly reported. . . . Rampersad is uniquely qualified to examine the Ellison case."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Rampersad is as meticulous as he is graceful."
--Newsday

About the Author

Arnold Rampersad is Senior Associate Dean for the Humanities at Stanford University, where he is also Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities and a member of the English department. He is a recipient of fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written for The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times Book Review, and The Washington Post.