Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison’s Followers (2,084)

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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 · 210,260 ratings · 10,630 reviews · 91 distinct works • Similar authors
Invisible Man
3.92 avg rating — 202,649 ratings — published 1952 — 277 editions
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Juneteenth
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3.60 avg rating — 2,263 ratings — published 1999 — 42 editions
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Flying Home and Other Stories
3.91 avg rating — 880 ratings — published 1996 — 7 editions
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The Black Ball
3.79 avg rating — 864 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions
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Shadow and Act
4.10 avg rating — 636 ratings — published 1960 — 28 editions
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Battle Royal
3.86 avg rating — 460 ratings
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The Collected Essays
by
4.35 avg rating — 312 ratings — published 1995 — 11 editions
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Living with Music: Jazz Wri...
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4.11 avg rating — 240 ratings — published 2001 — 4 editions
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King of the Bingo Game
3.58 avg rating — 190 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
3916 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
2218 likes
Like

Polls

January 2015 New School Classic Poll

 
  16 votes, 28.6%

1952, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 581 pages
 
  7 votes, 12.5%

 
  7 votes, 12.5%

1958, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 209 pages
 
  6 votes, 10.7%

1951, The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, 160 pages
 
  5 votes, 8.9%

 
  4 votes, 7.1%

 
  3 votes, 5.4%

 
  3 votes, 5.4%

 
  2 votes, 3.6%

1920, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, 305 pages
 
  2 votes, 3.6%

 
  1 vote, 1.8%

1928, Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, 300 pages
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

1958, The Bell by Iris Murdoch, 320 pages
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

56 total votes
More...

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