| Ralph Ellison: A Biography Contributor(s): Rampersad, Arnold (Author) |
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ISBN: 0375707980 ISBN-13: 9780375707988 Publisher: Vintage OUR PRICE: $19.80 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2008 Annotation: 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. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures - Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General - Biography & Autobiography | Social Activists |
| Dewey: B |
| Physical Information: 1.39" H x 5.26" W x 8.02" (1.41 lbs) 704 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |