Ralph ellington biography

American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer (1913–1994)

Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913^[a] – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953.^[2]

Ellison wrote Shadow and Act (1964), a collection of political, social, and critical essays, and Going to the Territory (1986).^[3]The New York Times dubbed him "among the gods of America's literary Parnassus".^[4]

A posthumous novel, Juneteenth, was published after being assembled from voluminous notes Ellison left upon his death.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974.^[5]

Early life

Ralph Waldo Ellison, named after Ralph Waldo Emerson,^[6] was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap, on March 1, 1913.

He was the second of three sons; firstborn Alfred died in infancy, and younger b