Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

LAWRENCE JACKSON is Assistant Professor of English at Howard University, where he specializes in African American literature and criticism. He was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship and was Resident Fellow at Harvard?s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute while completing this book. Jackson holds a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Stanford University, and an M.A. in English from Ohio State University. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

AUTHOR. INTELLECTUAL. SOCIAL CRITIC. ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WRITERS OF ALL TIME.
RALPH ELLISON.

Praise for
Ralph Ellison
Emergence of Genius

"Dr. Lawrence Jackson s remarkable biography of Ralph Ellison is an essential contribution to the scholarship on one of the twentieth century s greatest writers. Painstakingly researched and exhaustive, this compelling portrait of Ellison clarifies his genius and his intellectual era for a new century." Charles Johnson, National Book Award Winner and author of Middle Passage

"Lawrence Jackson s absorbing biography of Ralph Ellison makes a vital contribution to American literary history." Ross Posnock, English Department, New York University, Author of Color and Culture: Black Writers and the Making of the Modern Intellectual

"Professor Lawrence Jackson s painstaking documentation of Ralph Ellison s early life and the beginning of his literary career provides a much needed resource for Ellison s readers and critics." Horace Porter, author of Jazz Country: Ralph Ellison in America and Director of African Studies at the University of Iowa

"An eloquently written and exquisitely researched biography. There is nothing quite like it. Jackson breathes life into those hidden nooks and crannies of Ellison s youth that would later become cannon fodder for the grown Ellison s explorations. An utterly groundbreaking biography, the idea of Ralph Ellison will never be the same." Jerry Watts, author of Heroism and the Black Intellectual: Ralph Ellison, Politics, and Afro–American Intellectual Life

Aus dem Klappentext

Author, intellectual, and social critic, Ralph Ellison (1914?1994) was a pivotal figure in American literature and history and arguably the father of African American modernism. Universally acclaimed for his first novel, Invisible Man, a masterpiece of modern fiction, and, more recently, for Juneteenth, Ellison was recognized with a stunning succession of honors, including the 1953 National Book Award. Yet, despite rich literary accomplishment and important friendships, political activism, and historical impact, Ellison?s life has never been the subject of a biography. He has received surprisingly sparse treatment by biographers of other leading American literary figures, historians, and social critics. Here, for the first time, is a thoroughly researched biography that tells the coming-of-age story of one of the most gifted and influential writers of our time.

Powerfully enhanced by rare photographs of Ellison, this long-deserved examination draws from archives, literary correspondence, and interviews with Ellison?s relatives, friends, and associates. Tracing his path from poverty in Dustbowl Oklahoma to his rise among the literary elite, Lawrence Jackson explores the author?s relationships with other stars, particularly Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, and examines his never-before-documented involvement in the Socialist Left of the 1930s and ?40s, the black radical rights movement of the same period, and the League of American Writers. The result is a fascinating portrait of a fraternal cadre of important black writers and critics??and the singularly complex and intriguing man at its center.

The critical success of Invisible Man would bring a flood of honors: the 1955 Prix de Rome from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Medal of Freedom, bestowed by Richard Nixon in 1969, an honorary doctorate from Harvard in 1974, and election to both the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This exceptional biography reveals to readers a man whose mark on an art?? and a people?? has far transcended the trophies bestowed on him.