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Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison’s Followers (2,050)

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Ralph Ellison


Born
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, The United States
March 01, 1913

Died
April 16, 1994

Genre
Literature & Fiction, Politics, Nonfiction

Influences
Hemingway, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Louis Armstrong, Richard Wright, ...more


Ralph Ellison was a scholar and writer. He was born Ralph Waldo Ellison in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, named by his father after Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison was best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote Shadow and Act (1964), a collection of political, social and critical essays, and Going to the Territory (1986). For The New York Times , the best of these essays in addition to the novel put him "among the gods of America's literary Parnassus." A posthumous novel, Juneteenth, was published after being assembled from voluminous notes he left after his death.

Ellison died of Pancreatic Cancer on April 16, 1994. He was eighty-one years old. ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.92 · 208,952 ratings · 10,498 reviews · 90 distinct works • Similar authors
Invisible Man
3.92 avg rating — 201,421 ratings — published 1952 — 277 editions
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Juneteenth
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3.60 avg rating — 2,252 ratings — published 1999 — 42 editions
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Flying Home and Other Stories
3.90 avg rating — 869 ratings — published 1996 — 29 editions
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The Black Ball
3.80 avg rating — 840 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions
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Shadow and Act
4.10 avg rating — 632 ratings — published 1960 — 28 editions
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Battle Royal
3.85 avg rating — 453 ratings
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The Collected Essays
by
4.36 avg rating — 311 ratings — published 1995 — 11 editions
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Living with Music: Jazz Wri...
by
4.11 avg rating — 239 ratings — published 2001 — 4 editions
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King of the Bingo Game
3.57 avg rating — 182 ratings — published 1944
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Going to the Territory
4.22 avg rating — 106 ratings — published 1986 — 6 editions
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More books by Ralph Ellison…

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Quotes by Ralph Ellison  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
tags: freedom, identity, independence, self-awareness, self-discovery
3951 likes
Like

“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
3918 likes
Like

“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
tags: control, defeat, humanity, life
2215 likes
Like

Polls

Revisit the Shelf Poll for March 2021

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (1887) 123 pages last read Sept 2013
 
  19 votes, 21.8%

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1934) 315 pages last read March 2018
 
  18 votes, 20.7%

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980) 563 pages, last read June 2016
 
  12 votes, 13.8%

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952) 581 pages last read Oct 2016
 
  9 votes, 10.3%

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960) 324 pages, last read May 2016
 
  8 votes, 9.2%

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya
Angelou (pub 1969, 289 pp, last read Sept 2017)
 
  8 votes, 9.2%

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1965) 343 pages, last read Nov 2016
 
  7 votes, 8.0%

Dracula by Bram Stoker (1847) 488 - the MPE is a critical edition right now.
 
  6 votes, 6.9%

87 total votes
More...

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