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Ralph Ellison

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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: 3.9 · 186,442 ratings · 8,427 reviews · 94 distinct works • Similar authors
Invisible Man
3.91 avg rating — 180,224 ratings — published 1952 — 273 editions
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Juneteenth
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3.63 avg rating — 1,867 ratings — published 1999 — 39 editions
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Flying Home and Other Stories
3.90 avg rating — 752 ratings — published 1996 — 28 editions
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Shadow and Act
4.11 avg rating — 600 ratings — published 1964 — 25 editions
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Battle Royal
3.85 avg rating — 382 ratings — 2 editions
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The Collected Essays
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4.34 avg rating — 281 ratings — published 1995 — 13 editions
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Living with Music: Jazz Wri...
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4.12 avg rating — 217 ratings — published 2001 — 5 editions
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King of the Bingo Game
3.68 avg rating — 108 ratings — published 1944
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Going to the Territory
4.22 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1986 — 8 editions
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Three Days Before the Shoot...
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3.90 avg rating — 96 ratings — published 2010 — 12 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)

“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
3942 likes
Like

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
tags: freedom, identity, independence, self-awareness, self-discovery
3922 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
2206 likes
Like

Polls

October 2016 New School Group Read

1952, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 581 pages
 
  34 votes, 21.5%

 
  32 votes, 20.3%

1996, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, 432 pages
 
  16 votes, 10.1%

1984, Neuromancer by William Gibson, 271 pages
 
  15 votes, 9.5%

1924, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, 706 pages
 
  12 votes, 7.6%

1939, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, 231 pages
 
  12 votes, 7.6%

1997, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, 432 pages
 
  11 votes, 7.0%

1956, The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick, 103 pages
 
  11 votes, 7.0%

1990, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, 246 pages
 
  8 votes, 5.1%

1950, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, 359 pages
 
  5 votes, 3.2%

1978, Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec, 581 pages
 
  2 votes, 1.3%

158 total votes
More...

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