Ralph Ellison facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ralph Ellison
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| Born | Ralph Waldo Ellison March 1, 1913 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | April 16, 1994 (aged 81) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Essay, criticism, novel, short story |
| Subject | writing |
| Notable works | Invisible Man |
| Notable awards |
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Ralph Waldo Ellison (born March 1, 1913 – died April 16, 1994) was an American writer. He was also a literary critic and a scholar. He is most famous for his novel Invisible Man, which won a big award called the National Book Award in 1953.
Ellison also wrote other important books. These include Shadow and Act (1964), which is a collection of essays. He also wrote Going to the Territory (1986). The New York Times newspaper once called him one of America's greatest writers. After he passed away, another novel, Juneteenth, was published. It was put together from many notes he had left behind.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ralph Waldo Ellison was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His birthday was March 1, 1913. His parents were Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap. He was named after a famous writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Ralph was the second of three sons. His older brother died as a baby. His younger brother, Herbert, was born in 1916. Ralph's father worked in construction and owned a small business. He loved books and hoped Ralph would become a poet someday. Sadly, his father died in 1916 after an accident.
In 1921, Ralph's mother moved the family to Gary, Indiana. She hoped her sons would have a better life there. But she couldn't find a job, so they moved back to Oklahoma. Ralph worked many different jobs to help his family. He was a busboy, a shoeshine boy, and a hotel waiter. He even worked as a dentist's assistant.
He loved music and got free lessons for the trumpet and saxophone. He became the bandmaster at his school. Ralph's mother got married three more times. Life was sometimes hard, and Ralph kept working to help out. He also played football at Frederick A. Douglass High School. He finished high school in 1931. After graduating, he worked for a year to save money. He bought a trumpet and took more music lessons.
Studying at Tuskegee Institute
Ellison really wanted to go to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. This was a famous university for black students. He applied twice and was finally accepted in 1933. They needed a trumpet player for their orchestra! Ellison traveled to Alabama by hopping on freight trains.
At Tuskegee, Ellison studied music. The music department was very well-known. He learned from famous musicians like William L. Dawson and Hazel Harrison. But in his free time, he loved to read. He spent hours in the library reading classic books. Reading T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land was a big moment for him. He also read books by James Joyce and Gertrude Stein.
His English teacher, Morteza Drezel Sprague, was also a big influence. This teacher showed him how exciting literature could be. Through Sprague, Ellison read important books like Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
From a young age, Ellison was interested in electronics. He liked taking apart and rebuilding radios. As an adult, he built his own fancy stereo systems. He even wrote an essay about this hobby called "Living With Music." This interest in how things work helped him think about how to write novels. Ellison left Tuskegee in 1936 without finishing his degree.
Life in New York City
In 1936, Ellison moved to New York City. He wanted to study sculpture. He found a place to stay in Harlem, which was a lively cultural center for black Americans. There, he met Langston Hughes, a very famous black writer. Hughes introduced him to other writers and artists.
Ellison met artists like Romare Bearden and writer Richard Wright. Wright encouraged Ellison to write fiction. Ellison's first published story was "Hymie's Bull." From 1937 to 1944, he published many book reviews, short stories, and articles. These appeared in magazines like New Challenge.
Ellison was connected to some communist publications. However, he and Richard Wright later became disappointed with the Communist Party. They felt the party wasn't truly supporting African Americans. This disappointment led Ellison to start writing Invisible Man. This novel was partly his way of responding to what he felt was a betrayal.
In 1938, Ellison married Rosa Araminta Poindexter. She was a stage actress. Their marriage ended in 1943. During World War II, Ellison was eligible for the military. He later joined the United States Merchant Marine.
In 1946, he married Fanny McConnell. Fanny was also a talented person. She was a writer and helped start a theater group. While Ellison worked on Invisible Man, Fanny helped support them financially. She also helped him type and edit his book.
Invisible Man was published in 1952. The book is about a black man's journey to find his identity. It shows his experiences in the Deep South and then in New York City. The main character feels "invisible" because people don't truly see him for who he is. The novel explores different kinds of racism and how they make people feel alone.
Later Years and Achievements
In 1964, Ellison published Shadow and Act, a collection of his essays. He also started teaching at colleges like Bard College and Yale University. He continued working on his second novel. In 1965, a survey of experts called Invisible Man the most important novel since World War II.
In 1967, Ellison's summer home caught fire. He said he lost over 300 pages of his new novel. Ellison was a perfectionist. Even after winning an award for Invisible Man, he felt he could do better. He wrote more than 2,000 pages for his second novel, but he never finished it.
Ralph Ellison passed away on April 16, 1994, from pancreatic cancer. He was buried in New York City.
Awards and Recognition
Invisible Man won the 1953 US National Book Award for Fiction. This award helped him become a well-known writer in America. He joined the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also received two President's Medals from different presidents. France also gave him a special medal. He was the first African-American to join the Century Association. He also received an honorary degree from Harvard University.
After his experiences with the Communist Party, he used his fame to speak about how literature can teach us important lessons. In 1955, he traveled to Europe, giving talks. He lived in Rome for a while. There, he became good friends with writer Robert Penn Warren. Warren later interviewed Ellison about his thoughts on race and the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1958, Ellison returned to the U.S. He taught at Bard College and started his second novel, Juneteenth. He also wrote many essays about the black experience and his love for jazz music.
Ellison continued to receive many awards. In 1969, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The next year, France honored him again. He also became a professor at New York University.
In 1975, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His hometown of Oklahoma City honored him by naming a library after him. He kept teaching and writing essays. In 1985, he received the National Medal of Arts. In 1986, his book Going to the Territory was published. This book included essays about writers like William Faulkner and Richard Wright. It also discussed music by Duke Ellington and the contributions of African Americans to American identity.
In 1992, Ellison received a special award for his achievements. He was not just a writer; he was also a sculptor, musician, photographer, and college professor. He taught at several universities.
Legacy and Posthumous Publications
After Ellison's death, more of his writings were found. This led to the publication of Flying Home and Other Stories in 1996. In 1999, his second novel, Juneteenth, was published. It was put together from over 2,000 pages he had written over 40 years. All the unfinished parts of this novel were later published in 2010 as Three Days Before the Shooting...
On February 18, 2014, the United States Postal Service honored Ralph Ellison with a special stamp.
A park in Harlem, New York City, was named after Ellison on May 1, 2003. It is near where he lived for many years. In the park, there is a large bronze sculpture. It has a "cut-out man figure" inspired by his book Invisible Man.
Ralph Ellison's Famous Quotes
- "It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow."
- "Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it."
- "The world is a possibility if only you'll discover it."
- "Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled 'file and forget.'"
- "Education is all a matter of building bridges."
- "I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed."
See also
In Spanish: Ralph Ellison para niños
